Shock Therapyº
by umbraAvian
Summary: This town actually is big enough for the two of us, but that doesn't mean we have to share. -yusuke/makoto, kuwabara/minako-
1. Staticstically

This is for a close friend who ships this, but was kinda sad to see there wasn't anything on fan to peruse! Alas.

Also holy damn, nostalgia? I wrote Sailor Moon crossovers when I was twelve. This is such a great feeling.

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><p>She was taller than him. She had an athletic build and bright green eyes, and walking towards her was like running face first into a field of static electricity.<p>

What the hell was _wrong_ with Tokyo.

A little demon outbreak, and he's not on the job, it's these girls who've been plastered in newspapers under blurry shots in sailor uniforms and high heels pulverizing everything that shows up, mysteriously knocks out crowds of people, and disappear without a trace. Five sighted with a leader with ridiculous hair, and Yusuke didn't know this from the papers. He knew it from old guys talking at his ramen stand about how crazy this little underground vendetta between girls had been in the small bits news was able to cover. And at this present moment, where he stood face to face with one, he downright goddamn refused to be a 'knockout-and-partial-amnesia' to save the lady face so she could leap off a few buildings in those lace up boots to get a nice pose underneath the moon before disappearing again.

But she was making it hard, and that was annoying.

"I thought you didn't attack civilians?"

"You're not exactly radiating civilian." She really was dressed like some gaudy heroine- green and pink and tiaras and maybe in a comic book it would've been something to look at, but in person it felt downright _ridiculous_. It had to have been a latent ability, to charge the air so tightly that he was sure he'd get shocked if he touched a nearby street lamp. And true, he'd aimed a spirit gunshot at her friend in red before she disappeared into the city, but that's because he was damn sure the red-themed-fire-themed-_goddamn-they're-all-themed_ one had hit him first with some convenient fire fingertip gun. That one he wanted to take issue with, because that was his _thing_. But the girl with the electric touch was walking towards him, cracking her fists.

"Come on, buddy. Out with it. Whose your higher up and why are they taking people's energy _this_ time? I've done this song and dance five times now, and frankly, my girls and I are tired of it."

She wasn't monologuing. She had enunciated all of that clearly while zig-zagging to aim a knee to his abdomen. He caught it, gripped her knee not enough to hurt, enough to let her know he wasn't playing around. "Are you me? Last I checked, this was my district and I stopped all the assholes who think they can pull the exact same thing." She pulled out of his grip and put a fighting stance of distance between them. "By the way, I could see your underwear."

She'd placed her palm on the ground and moments later, Yusuke felt a surge of electricity from the conductive metal of a sewer manhole he had been standing on, nearly frying him. Thunder-thighs, he was mentally calling her, was smiling.

"Luna was right, this has gotten a lot easier now that I don't have to shout out any attacks."

_That did it._ Girl or not, the gloves were off. But she could parry, duck, and move. And metal was her domain; the moment he punched a metal post she'd been standing on, he would get a rebound of electricity. It was getting old.

"You were pretty gung-ho about it before! Why don't you come down here and try to kick my ass without zapping me every five seconds! Or do you fight cheap?"

The ponytailed girl leapt from her perch, and in a mere seven seconds they danced a tango of who could land the first hit, both stopping each other with her elbow nearly implanted in his kidneys and his arm threatening to knock the wind out of her neck.

"I don't fight cheap." There was not an bit of worry in her voice even though he was an inch away from knocking her out, speaking so close to his ear. "But you're right, I don't attack civilians."

"What do you call this?"

"I don't know. I'm not the leader." A smooth movement put distance between them again. "How about a meet and greet? You said you were familiar with this too." To the senshi, this was almost too creepy of a coincidence. The last meeting, that included all of them, every single Senshi gathered at Rei's temple, was to discuss and explain there had been sightings over the years of different people- not imitators, not people with sailor crystals; people who were strong in their own right and independent of the sacred Senshi function. There were other vigilantes out there, just less iconified in Tokyo's newspapers. Getting information would be a top priority. Allies or enemies had been another game they'd played far too much as well.

"Uh, yeah. It's kind of been my job ever since I died and came back. And before you try to vanish and fucking electrocute me, do you have a name?"

"Are we playing trade?"

_This girl._ "Yusuke Urameshi. I don't have a stupid title and I don't get in the papers."

Fair enough. "Sailor Jupiter."

"I'm going to stick to calling you Thunder-thighs." In an instant, there was a shock to the back of his neck. If he got a good look at her face, she was flushed in the same color as her collar's ribbon. She didn't like to be teased, and didn't like to be teased by _boys_. She carried enough issues with that as it was. And with that, it was the end of the argument. She was just a hop, skip, and a jump to the roof of a building, disappearing into the night, leaving the spirit detective to try living up to his title in pondering what the hell just happened.

* * *

><p>About a month after, he recognized her.<p>

Not by her face. If he saw that girl standing on her own, abnormally tall and athletically built aside, some sort of rose-tinted shades would make him look the other way. It was the static, the things making his hair stand on end. He could feel it just by touching a phone booth and getting an unwarranted shock. She wasn't alone.

"You're going through another transformation…" But she was sitting alone, who the hell was talking to her?

"And?"

"This is the final stage of your evolution as a senshi… to prepare for your future, your body is going to start exerting more energy than it can contain."

A laugh, from the girl. "Is that why you look a little fuzzier than usual, Luna?"

And that was followed by a sigh. "It's happening to everyone. The temperature drops around Ami, and heats up around Rei. We can't quite pinpoint what effect Minako is having, but she is making a… difference. You should be careful. Don't over-exert yourself, because that's exactly what your body wants you to do. Like a…"

"Shaken soda can?"

"Not what I would have used, but close enough." The detective saw a black cat leap off the bench as the girl unraveled her bento. "Take care."

"Will do."

The talking voice had been the fluffy mascot? Like he should even be surprised. Silently, Yusuke slinked up behind the bench to get a good look at what was packed inside. To her shock, he reached down to pick up a vegetable roll and pop it in his mouth. Not bad.

"What's up, thunder thighs?"

A greeting that ended up with the entire box smashed into his face.

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><p>… I know this is definitely a fic that kind of sort of warrants a lot of chapters to explain everything, but truth be told, I wrote this for a friend! If you guys really want to see some sorta continuation to this, leave me a review or some such and I'll see what I can hash out. And if you just enjoyed reading it without wanting to review, that's supercool too.<p> 


	2. Frienemies

She was falling in love at first sight roughly four times a day.

The handsome boy behind the counter had a scar on the back of his neck made her invent a story that he was used, and abused, by some horrible family member, and maybe she could wait behind the store to hear his story, but then she'd be late for practice. She imagined a tryst with her handsome, young, volleyball coach despite their age gap, and couldn't stop thinking about it or letting her eyes glisten like blue diamonds in his purple prose-y direction. And then there was the boy with the really nice haircut and amazing laugh, and she just- loved him. And it was driving her insane, because it wasn't real love.

It was some sort of hyper adrenaline pumping through her mind and it was on the verge of making her literally sick, compounded with her heart breaking and her emotions in a frenzy. This was not how a leader should behave. This is not how someone mentally _stable_ should behave. She spent her time transforming in the privacy of her room (quite nice it didn't require yelling anymore) and admiring herself in the mirror. Her body had toned out to near perfection, with all the workout being a senshi gave her. Rei was still the illustrious beauty of the group, but Minako was the one who took pride in it, putting her arms behind her hair and fluffing it out. When she was Venus, she never felt better. Never felt more beautiful.

And it felt like she could expend more of that useless, mind-boggling energy if she was hunting enemies down. Her earring had a two-way radio implanted, her white cat on the other side of town directing her exactly where there had been sightings, as she took them down, twirling her chain like it was the product of excess energy. Seven youma down in one night. Manipulating the chain had become so much easier- charge it and strike with it, and even though it netted her a victory or several, it always knocked her back on the return. Too much energy, too much whiplash.

_"We can't rely on Usagi-chan for everything, you guys."_

_It wasn't a code of defiance, but truth. Usagi was studying law- LAW, of all things, and politics. Her birthdays were drawing closer and closer to when she would rule Crystal Tokyo, and Usagi had been scared like a rabbit into study. She was still lazy, but her heart pounded at the thought of being responsible for everyone. Every man, woman, and child on the planet, every living creature. She knew she was going to do it, Chibi-usa had been proof, but had Chibi-usa been the thing that startled her into finally focusing on the law of the world. She would drape on Ami's door and ask questions about current foreign policies Ami didn't even know Usagi knew. Instead of with the girls, Usagi was starting to study with Mamoru more, under the same topics, because they would both be rulers. Nerves were flying. It wasn't just become queen, everyone loves you. People had to understand you were the best for the world for a reason, or…_

… _or, she would face opposition for wanting world peace, a little, fresh-faced 23 year old girl trying to magically become queen. That was literally the scenario Usagi was faced with, and Minako opened her arms to the rest of them. "It's time I be leader again, because Usagi-chan can't sneak out at night anymore with what she's preparing for. What she's preparing for all of us… I'm going to call the shots from now on, on the youma, and we only go to her if there's no choice. I know she'd be right by her side, but we… even if it's a lie… we need to convince her that the world is a steady and safe place before she steps up to rule. Otherwise, it's just a whole other barrel of things to be worried about."_

Luna agreed. Artemis agreed. They would be taking control of the situation while they underwent the last transformations they'd need to be the four guardians alongside her. They always hung out with her, cheered her up, encouraged her that there was still plenty of time- and Usagi always asked if there had been any danger. They waved away that there hadn't been anything to get too worried about, just little bits and pieces of energy with no real leader that needed to be squared away; ghosts, ghouls, things that were a sort of… banal evil. And she believed them.

Minako promised to be the one to reveal to her that they had been lying. It was her burden, even if the other senshi offered, knowing they'd all agreed to it. Jupiter was on the other side of town, and Rei and Ami were tag teaming just like they used to when they first met. Minako and Makoto were the two that were good enough to take down one youma in one fell swoop, so they worked separately. Static on the other end of her earring alarmed her.

"- Artemis?"

It was a hop, skip, and a jump from rooftop to rooftop to his location, and she was not letting _her_ guide get eaten or mauled or his energy sucked out. She twirled her chain as she jumped, starting to charge it with the energy that lashed out so powerfully and erased a youma from existence. "_Ohhhh, you are going to get it-"_

Too typical. Green skin, purple hair, yellow eyes, and- a boy with red hair holding Artemis. He'd been fighting back? A glow emanating from his hand suggested it, though the bloody marks on his arms suggested this one was a little too much trouble than preferable. She spun the chain above her head; and if the youma saw it coming, it didn't have time to speak a single word.

"_Venus Spiral Shotgun!_"

With all the built-up force within her hands it swung down and lashed right through; a triumphant smirk as the chain began to reel back, wrap around her hand- wait, no. It was the kick back building up as she stumbled on the roof- in heels! Oh god, she was going to cut the heels and she didn't care how glamorous she looked or didn't look or- she was falling. About three stories, no, four stories, no- and arms caught her.

This was Usagi's moment. To be faced with a prince charming and become overwhelmed by emotions. She had closed her eyes on impact, but when she looked up…

The man was rugged looking. Thug-like, with a bizarre ginger pompadour. He had let go of Artemis to catch her. And all Minako could think about was the myth of Aphrodite's husband being the undesirable Hephaestus.

She blinked. Then, put on her winning smile.

"I bet you catch all the girls."

* * *

><p>"Ladies! … and gents!"<p>

Her arm was still draped around his shoulders, a difficult effort, but one put forth nonetheless for a purpose. Four men, four women. The static in the room was burning as Makoto was staring at their 'leader' who was stuffing his face with the snacks laid out on the table. The other two gents, respectively red and electrified black hair, were clueless to their blue and red counterparts across from the table. "We all have a common enem-"

"Rogue youma-" Began the redhead.

"- Terrorizing the streets and being a general nuisance." Finished his much shorter companion.

"… right. Well, My name is Sailor Venus."

It had been really helpful for Makoto to have her cover ultimately blown by the boy who had picked up on her electric vibes. Currenly, Rei's heat and Ami's ice were canceling each other out for a decent temperature in the room. Just the static, and Minako's radiating enthusiasm were the only other effects. "I'm not saying we should team up-"

"We're not teaming up." Yusuke mumbled through rice.

"… right." She said, yet again. "But I'm saying it's beneficial to us, right now, to watch each other's back."

"She does have a point…" Kurama muttered softly. "They know this district better than we do, and they have ways of tracking things before they can do actual damage. It's beneficial to all of us." Kurama had that blessed quality of being able to ignore any of Yusuke's pointed glares. "To refuse, we would basically be… well, idiots."

Venus un-draped her arm to wave her finger. "Right! And we're on the same team, y'know. Just… different uniforms." The ginger next to her rubbed his head sheepishly, as if he had no clue what the blonde's sudden infatuation was. "Well! If none of us are happy with this, we can just… keep it in mind. Two factions, one ideal goal."

Makoto drummed her fingers on the table, staring at the man across from her, who only seemed to stay for the food. She didn't take thunder-thighs well and she didn't take him scarfing down the food she'd made for her girls well, either. Yusuke had already assessed the girls: Blue hair, bookworm, black hair, Team Bitch aka Hiei in red heels, Blonde, idiot with a crush on the wrong person, and thunder-thighs was really the only one interesting to him. He liked people who could put up a fight, and none of the other girls had… well, they looked like they could be blown over by a particularly strong breeze. He'd seen Jupiter very nearly get the upper hand on him- then again, no one really won.

After some pleasantries, they all parted, Minako-slash-Venus writing her number on the ginger's hand.

* * *

><p>"It's perfect, Rei. If I can focus all my attention on <em>one<em> guy who isn't even into me, I'll stop randomly falling in love. And then, when my body finally gets used to it, I'll lay off him. No harm, no foul."

Rei crossed her legs with the most intimidating stare a thousand years running. "What if he starts feeling things for you? Are you just going to dump him because it was convenient for you at the time?"

"He's not- he said he has a girl he likes and he's holding out for. The ultimate friend zone. I play oblivious for a while and it'll be fine, trust me. We move on with our lives, it's all settled." There was just the mania that was dealing with real love that she'd have to handle. The pheromone that was like toxin in her body, if she could both concentrate it on one person and know for certain that it was false. It wasn't like the Goddess of Love had a lot of options.

Rei sighed. "Whatever, I can't stand men…"

* * *

><p>"Thunder-thighs!"<p>

"Stop it."

"So why is blondie in charge? You're the tough one."

Makoto whipped her head around. "She has always been in charge. Being cheerful and being an effective leader aren't mutually exclusive. Besides, it's not like she bosses us around. Everyone just…"

"… does their own thing and still keeps it together as if they had a mental wiretap all along?"

"Basically. How did you-?"

Yusuke crossed his arms, finally walking in the other direction. "Experience."

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><p>oh right! Pairings for this fic will beimplied to be Yusuke/Makoto and Kuwabara/Minako


	3. Rebels with Cause

"Mako-chan, I want more onigiri."

Ever the type to spoil her friends with treats that she somewhat compulsively made, the time the two had shared together under the basis of studying- (there was actually a marathon on that they both enjoyed, and decided to make a night of it) and had turned it into the equivalent of watching television and eating ice cream by the quart, except with a bit of a healthier alternative. The molded little triangles were always stuffed with something amazing. Makoto's choices in spices and fillings, and choosing to wrap the whole onigiri with dried seaweed rather than just a part, made each one a surprise and every bit delicious, like a chocolate box where no piece of chocolate were a game of hit and miss. The delicious small crunch covering the soft inside until she reached the coveted center (white tuna this time) was almost a holy experience.

"I'm going to have to cut you off, soon." Finger food had been the choice of the night. It was quick and easy to prepare and without Ami (who would be insisting on focusing for the cover-reason of studying) or Rei (who would accuse them of trying to steal Usagi's 'bottomless pit appetite award'), it felt like a feast, pure and simple. 'Want some gyoza?' 'Yes please!' 'I was thinking about making a plate of curry-' 'One for me, too!' The tea was deliciously tart and went with everything in front of them, selling itself as made for people who exercised regularly- something they couldn't deny with the nightly workouts.

On that subject…

"When the show is over, shouldn't we go around looking for more youma?"

Minako flicked a piece of rice into her mouth that had been hanging on the edge of her lips. "You know what happens when we eat a lot then transform."

There were uncomfortable logistics when dealing with the sailor fuku. They weren't made of any human material- Lunarian, to tell the truth, which was form-fitting for combat. It didn't loosen and it didn't rip or give slack in any way. The pressure on their stomachs would be nauseating and combine it with battle- that was a sick day that could be saved for another time. "Besides-" Minako was having a hard time deciding between another onigiri or the fresh, hot gyoza, and picked both. "Our boys have us covered tonight. Ami told me."

"Don't call them our boys." She turned up the volume when a scene came on with their two favorite characters. "They're just guys who aren't senshi who do the same thing we do-"

The Venusian lost herself in thought, thinking about the subject of her pseudo romance before coming back down to Earth. "I wonder how much of the world we're missing, Mako-chan."

"Huh?"

"I mean, for the first time, we meet supernatural boys in our district who have been doing the same thing as us for as long as us. How many more are there?"

Food for thought. Makoto sipped to the bottom of her tea and tried reading the leaves after one lesson with Rei regarding the topic. "…"

"I mean, this is just Japan, and everything's been happening here like we're the center of the world, but we're totally not." Oh goodness, an umeboshi filling. Heaven. "There could be a school somewhere in North America dedicated to teaching people with powers. Or in England! Or hey, why not all across Europe? They have a really supernatural and bloody history. Maybe the Greek Gods still exist somehow? Or maybe there's just ragtag groups of boys and girls in every part of the world, like those guys and like us, who are just as important to this planet as we are. Crime doesn't localize itself to one place."

"… that's really insightful of you, Minako." The show was a period drama, but what they loved it for was the well written romance. "When you think about it, now that we've met one team, it's more illogical to assume it really does stop at just us. And we might think we're completely important, but our stories are just our own. There might be people out there on the same level. Maybe they don't have a kingdom on the moon, but maybe they're- I don't know. Time travelers from planets outside our galaxy. People who can hop through the multi-verse, stuff like that that doesn't even apply to us."

Minako clapped. "Right! Sailor Senshi can't be the only sacred function. So, with Crystal Tokyo approaching…"

"… we should start to unify everything we can under one common goal. We've faced world-eating monsters, but how many have other people destroyed threats under this assumption? I know the boys took on people similar."

Full of warm food, hot tea, and endless questions, Minako rested her chin on her hand. "Crystal Tokyo should… well, I want it to be the hub of humanity. That's what Chibiusa always told us. And if that's what it's going to be, why put us on a pedestal above all other heroes?"

"Is that the 'in love with another one' mindset talking?"

For a brief second, the blonde looked insulted. "No! I'm just saying- we _are_ badass and we've done a lot, but we have zero clue what anyone else has done. If we find out we and the guys really are the only ones? Cool, okay. But if we aren't- we're completely shafting other heroes out when we create the kingdom we know will come to pass. We don't know all the details about Crystal Tokyo, and that's like- beyond a good thing. That means we don't have a complete set of rules and balances in order to make that world exactly what we want out of it. And I think it should be…"

"Fair."

"Because if we're not the only ones, we'll face opposition, which isn't really the goal of worldwide peace."

When the credits started rolling, Makoto turned off the television and started cleaning up. "I think we should go on a walk to the park before we go to bed. Something about the night and fresh air makes it easier to digest. The food and this idea of yours."

* * *

><p>"So lay it down as you imagine it."<p>

That took Minako some time. She'd read enough manga to know what to expect, but that could also taint her perception, plus she wasn't entirely brilliant at geography. "Three to five people with spiritual connections all over the world. I'm guessing mostly urban because it's easier for youma to feed there, but there could be someone powerful out there in places we've never heard of. So the ratio of human to youma is fairly even, if I imagine it all over the world."

"Duck."

"What?"

Makoto's hand grabbed the back of hers by the bow, and shoved it down along with flattening herself along the ground. A blue-skinned, fanged _thing_ went sailing by them. A shot rang out and vaporized it. Minako giggled, automatically straightening herself up, still chock full of her pheromone override to greet the two not-so-gentleman who stood in front of them. "I told you they had us covered tonight."

The leader rolled his eyes, blowing smoke off his fingertip and folding his arms behind his back. "We don't have you covered, we're just doing what we always do."

It was like watching a metamorphosis between the politics-focused Minako to the lovesick Minako as she approached the ginger boy with her arms behind her back. "I swear, every time we meet, you just keep proving you're my knight in shining armor."

"_Uh._"

"Don't worry about it! Makoto was the one who told me to duck. Not a scratch! I'm safe once again, thanks to you."

In the past few months, Makoto's light vitriol towards Yusuke had mellowed a bit, at least enough for her to assess they were similar, and perhaps that was the reason she ended up annoyed. "Thanks."

"Don't sweat it. What are you guys doing out here not dressed up like comic book girls?"

But she still retained the right to roll her eyes.

"We were hanging out at my place and went on a walk- and now here we are."

"Mako! Mako-!" Minako waved her hand in the air, still with one arm wrapped around Kuwabara's. "We should bring them back to your place! You have a ton of leftovers and that chocolate strawberry cheesecake we haven't eaten yet, and-"

_And I think it should be fair to the other heroes._

It would have been easy to say no. Sorry, boys, but it's a girl's night only. But the truth was just the same as Minako had said it before she kicked into emotional overdrive. She didn't know Yusuke's story or his friend's, and they had to have one if they were playing garbage men for the youma on the nights the girls themselves could not. Judging them was easy. But picturing a future where the senshi tried to remain in power in the best interests of the world, while others who had fought just as much for just as long rebelled, just because one set of heroes shouldn't decide everything, much less one young queen-

For Usagi, make peace. Those were the only four words Minako had been trying to say.

"Yeah. Come on back, I made a lot of stuff and I won't be able to eat it all on my own, unless you wanted to stay out longer being exterminators.

Kuwabara was slightly uncomfortable, and Yusuke craved the same food he had when he first met all of the senshi something fierce- that girl was amazing enough of a cook to warrant a little get together.

- • -

The joyous thing of being in love with someone you didn't feel inclined to impress was that Minako didn't care if she made a mess eating cake, laughing loudly at late night stand up comedy, or quoting things she enjoyed. She didn't back down when she plugged in the console she brought over and did enough fighting games to warrant a best nineteen out of thirty-six, then playing a single-player game where they would pass the controller once one of them hit a part they didn't want to play. Kuwabara briefly reflected it was almost like playing with a normal person who didn't act infatuated- not that girls had ever quite been into him the way Minako demonstrated, but it was hard to describe for him. Makoto resigned herself to tea while Yusuke learned the magic of those amazing onigiri that Minako had indulged in until there were none left.

"So you're advocating your leader as queen of the world."

"It's not that simple."

"I'm not stupid, I know it isn't." Now he was pecking after the reheated gyoza. "But the weird thing to me is how you intend to pull this off. There's more people who would oppose that idea than you really think."

Makoto sighed. Her tea leaves made a misshapen frown. "We were talking about it. Our leader is studying law, and- well, we know we have time travel and we're sure it'll come to pass, but the way Minako talked about it, if we don't do it just right… it's not a utopia we'll have."

"Dick- dictatorship." He said, finally. "If you can't please everyone, and you can't, you guys are essentially screwing over a lot of people in the future. Including us."

Her green eyes shifted towards him, demanding he put down the chopsticks and look her in the eye. "So tell me honestly. What do you think of the concept of our leader becoming queen in the future."

He continued to eat, anyway. "If I didn't know you, I'd think it was bullshit and I'd actively fight against it. But to be honest, you guys seem like you're just fighting a war and building a future you don't want anything to do with."

"… ?"

"From what I can see, you can have as much duty and honor as a goddamn general, but do you really think you'll be happy serving however many amounts of years in a miniskirt defending the planet, until you die? Are you so damn robotic that you don't have things you want right now, in the present that has to get swept under the 'I regret everything' rug when, I don't care how much you love this girl, has to be queen… because you know time travel. That's literally it, isn't it? If you didn't know about your stone future, you'd feel a hell of a lot better living in the present, wouldn't you?"

The brunette knocked her fist against the table. "We've never considered betraying Usagi… especially that girl over there. But no, we never forgot our dreams either. And the future we know- aside from seeing someone again we all love and care about… none of us are sure what kind of future it will be. We talked about how people would rebel if we simply took over. We came to terms with the fact that there's more people out there than just you who might have powers. I don't want to christen our kingdom with blood."

"No one does."

They met eyes.

"No one would want to deal with the disaster of some leader of world peace being opposed on the virtue that no one knows where she came from or why she turned her district entirely into crystals, if I'm reading the situation right. You'd have to force people into your beliefs or bend enough that your own get wrecked. I don't see you winning except for choosing whatever turns out to be the 'less worse option.'"

Minako and Kuwabara had fallen asleep on stacks of decorative pillows that Makoto had practically coated her apartment with, the screen stuck perpetually on 'GAME OVER - CONTINUE?'. "Maybe that's why Usagi-chan's been scared into studying law so vigorously."

"Can you make something hot? I don't care if it's tea or more food. All this talk is creeping me out thinking about the future and it's giving me chills. Or maybe that's just you making my hair stand on end again."

"I don't know, can I?"

He snorted. "Would you, o Jupiter deity?"

Shaking her head, she finally conceded, deciding everyone was full enough that tea was the best option.

Except when she'd come back with it, he'd be sleeping under the kotatsu. She sighed- got down some quilted comforters she'd bought on sale because they were too cute, with their pink rose designs, and threw them over the blonde and ginger respectively. She paused a moment, then pushed another decorative pillow under the rebel's head before retreating to her sofa. Cleaning would wake everyone up, she thought, turning off the television, sipping the tea she refused to let go to waste until she was tired enough to roll under a throw blanket and fall asleep.

Rebels.

Rebellion.

Crystal Tokyo was becoming more and more frightening to think of, rather than the peaceful future they all agreed it would be


	4. Who Saves the Sailors?

Guys, hating love interests is not cool. Flesh them out instead. Also, congrats! Two chapters in one day. I didn't think I'd be so dedicated to writing for this when I had ideas. Now I seriously need to think about my other story.

* * *

><p>"Do you ever realize when… all the battles are won, and you can finally settle down, that something is wrong?"<p>

Keiko didn't talk about Yusuke to any of her friends. This boy from her college was the only one who believed her when she finally broke down and said her boyfriend-slash-fiancee was something out of an action manga, killing youma by moonlight or daylight. She'd been proposed to, but that had been a long time ago. Mamoru finally stopped reading his book in glances in the ultimate definition of multitasking and holding a deep conversation to listen to her fully. "… I don't understand what you mean. Yusuke? You think he'll flinch on his promise to you?"

After all, Mamoru had confided in return that he knew the Sailor Senshi personally, but never quite explained who he was to them to her.

"No… but that's not the problem. We were going to get married, then we didn't, and I don't know if that's on hold or anything- and I know it's not his fault there was a resurgence of people who are keeping him out at night so that he can keep everyone safe- these new demons steal souls with just a touch. And when they go, maybe we'll get a break where everything will be fine and we can finally marry and…" Her voice trailed off. Her brown eyes had caught a family that walked in. The man was a business man with two little girls, and a foreign looking wife. And they seemed happy.

"I'm not a war prize."

"What makes you think you're a war prize?" The topic was starting to crawl too close to the only break-up he and Usagi ever had, which was starting to worry him.

She tried to form the words gently, but eventually she just put both hands on the table with force. "I don't want to be the Girl Who Waits. I know it's so romanticized, but the more I've lived it, the more time I realized I spent hurting for someone I loved than I spent it honestly happy. And this war, it's just going to be replaced with another threat, it _always is_. I don't want to live out my twenties, thirties, and forties, fifties, sixties practically being a single mom knowing my husband is going to outlive me by a thousand years. And then when we look back on our lives, we'll see we spent our youth doing nothing- he'll have all the stories of the world, of being a hero, and I'm… I'm the prize. I don't doubt he loves me, I really don't." Keiko's eyelashes were quivering, fighting emotion. "But the life we would live together would be for him, and not for me. It's not fair. I want to be like that." She gestured to the family who had picked up their order and were on the way out.

"I want to have a life rich with memories made in the present, and not made while I'm waiting for someone to come back. It doesn't have to be supernatural- in fact, I'd be happier if it wasn't. But I can't ask someone I love to stop being a hero to stay with me, because they might say yes and I can't have that on my conscience."

The only reason, Mamoru thought, that he and Usagi would be happy living that kind of life, would be because they were both fighting together. It made him briefly reflect- what if he was the soldier against all of Usagi's enemies, and Usagi was just a friend? Or vise versa? Wouldn't one of them feel abandoned in the kind of life where they were made to eternally wait? Keiko clearly wanted a family- children. And with how she talked about her friends, she knew she'd turn every one of them on their head to know that she wasn't tied at the hip romantically to Yusuke anymore.

He both could and couldn't feel bad for Yusuke. A guy like that would probably be blind and take advantage of someone who was eternally waiting, but not love them less for that. And if he lived as long as she said, he'd be the one looking the same while she was an old woman on her death bed, only with the memories they shared between his acts of heroism. He only took this scenario so far in his head, because they were a 'destined' sort. The hero shouldn't take the girl he loves for granted, but also cannot give up the call to war. Keiko had probably thought on it for far too long.

Usagi came back to the table with treats from the snack bar, saw that Keiko was starting to tremble, and embraced her just so she could let go and cry as Mamoru explained quietly to the princess in transition to a queen exactly what the problem was, and could finally come to understand, between 'shhs' and 'it's okay, I'm here'. They'd both grown to like and speak with the girl between classes, between the times Usagi couldn't talk with her other friends. Eventually, Usagi tipped her head on Keiko's and started to whisper.

"If you can't fight someone's battles together, it's a painful way to live. And that goes beyond supernatural battles, or the ones we face together in real life. It doesn't sound like the two of you can do either, with this future you have… but, even if you love someone, and even if the pain is so strong in bringing it up…" Usagi had finally begun to truly mature, to think outside of the knit group of friends and the relationship she maintained. "If you can't be together, that hurts him as well as it hurts you. I think you should be really sure, Kei-chan. But it sounds like you already are."

Usagi took a moon-embroidered handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed away the tears. "You can be special to someone forever without being their lover. I know that, because I have the best friends in the world who I love just as much as Mamo-chan. But while they've been my best friends for longer than what would seem logical… literally, I know they wouldn't stop caring about me if I just changed the nature of how we classify our friendship."

Like making them soldiers to her approaching queenship, where everything would finally stop being hanging out, and everything would become official… a notion that would become true soon. Ami, Rei, Minako, Makoto, Hotaru, Michiru, Haruka, and Setsuna. All of them would be promoted or demoted to what was essentially a business relationship. The only senshi a professional ruler could allow herself to be as openly affectionate to would be Chibi-usa.

Usagi wondered if some part of all of those girls hated her. Or at least disliked how the way her rule would come to pass would restrict all of them. She wouldn't blame them… while Usagi had eternal love and a family to look forward to, it was also at the cost of knowing none of her friends had the same right. She tightened her grip around Keiko's shoulders, the only new friend she'd truthfully made after her battles were 'all over'.

"Do what makes you happy, no matter at what cost. Don't spend a lifetime waiting, if you think that's what it's going to be."

If her dearest friends wouldn't come to have that right, she could only try to influence those around her the best she could.

- **months later** -

It was raining heavy. Makoto was in the middle of rearranging her living room to be spooked by the pounds on her door so loud it sounded like the door was threatening to break. "Hold your horses!" She kicked the couch back against the wall and opened the door to something she didn't honestly expect.

Yusuke's hair was wet and matted to his face, twitching lightly when meeting the static of seeing her face to face thanks to her excess energy. He'd shoved his hands into his pockets and his eyes had a dark , shine-less look that somewhat made her uncomfortable. They'd been talking more in the meantime about Crystal Tokyo. He'd told her about the underworld, and how the grim reaper was the farthest thing from frightening. "Look, I've got to talk to you- I can't go to anyone else because they know the situation too well and-"

"Shut up and come inside." She opened the door. Did she have anything in the fridge she could offer? He made it clear he wasn't hungry, because he sat down and stuffed his legs under the kotatsu and fumbled for the switch to turn it on. He pulled off the soaking orange and yellow jacket and he had a face that was searching for words that sounded tough enough lest the tough girl of the group deemed him girlish. But he couldn't talk to the other three. He finally settled on words he felt fit the best.

"When you're fighting to save the world, that's always priority number one, isn't it?"

"If lives are at stake and you can stop it, yeah." She pulled her feet under the table across from him. "Too many people can't fight the way we do- so if you can, you have to."

"What if it costs you, though? What if it costs you the life you thought you were supposed to have?"

_A flower shop. A little bakery. Married early, kids. Lost her family in an airplane accident, so she wanted to make up for that to feel whole again… but she was a senshi._

"That doesn't matter." She tilted her head down so that her bangs covered her eyes. "There are a ton of people out there who would be superheroes if they wanted to, but people saddled with that responsibility don't get to make any choices. If you leave the battle ground, the people you care about are one person short and are in more danger than before, quadruple for the civilians. It's no longer a matter of what you want, but what's right."

"So why did the girl I've known since I was a kid leave me?"

A small gasp escaped her lips as she looked up. He _had_ a fairytale end in store, after all, but even though he didn't have rules that would come to him in Crystal Tokyo's time, he had chosen to still fight for the safety of others. This rude, delinquent boy. One who had broken a girl's heart on the virtue of fighting. "- Why aren't you chasing her, why are you talking to some random stranger girl you met half a year ago?"

"Because she had a goddamn point, and it's the same one you do. What if we finally got married, what then? Especially with the stupid future your group knows is gonna pass! Nothing is going to stop- my job is never gonna be over, and the only thing- the only thing the best friend I've had since I was a brat wanted was a stable life, and she told me she can't tell me to give up what I have going. And I would've finally passed the freaking mantle to you guys and my friends, but-"

There was a long, quiet pause between them. This was more emotion than he tried showing anyone else, as far as Makoto could tell. "But you can't. You can't keep someone waiting and you can't stop your job just because it interferes with everything you think you've earned at the turning point of your life."

_The image of the bakery and flower shop crumbled in her mind. Like this girl, it was something Yusuke couldn't have by virtue of personality._

"… you were the one I thought would get it. Why the hell… does something I both didn't expect and knew was inevitable hurt so goddamn bad?"

"It hurts all of us."

His face was on the table, one arm covering the top of his soaked head, but she continued. "Minako wanted to fall in love no matter what. Rei wanted to make amends with her family because she misses them, and wanted a peaceful life. Ami wanted to be a doctor, and she might be one long enough for our princess to give birth to her daughter, but after that, we give up everything. It…"

How tight her hair bobbles felt around her ponytail felt suddenly unbearable. She ripped them out and slammed them on the table.

"It…" He was a bad influence in language. "It _really fucking hurts_, Yusuke."

* * *

><p>Minako had convinced Kuwabara to accompany her to the far-out country, after the connection of multiple train rides. He expected some sort of romantic hot spot. He was pretty shocked to see that she had brought him to a packed, overgrown, still growing, old Japanese graveyard, with narrow paths and a maze like way of trying to find one's way through. "I haven't come out here in years, because I'm scared of going on my own, but I can't ask my friends. It feels really personal."<p>

The old stone monuments seemed to go from older to newer as they navigated the maze. These tombstones they passed now actually had flowers. There was one in the middle, that seemed like it never got any sort of maintenance. The words inscribed were hard to make out, and she held her umbrella out to light a stick of fast-burning incense and held it long enough for it to finally burn out.

"There aren't actually ashes in this grave." She repeated. "People who die from magic causes don't really leave a lot behind. If I didn't save up enough to forward money to have this monument made, there wouldn't even be one. Mama was really mad when she found out I pretty much decimated my college fund, but at that time, I already knew I wasn't going to college."

"Minako… who is this guy?"

"His name was Ace." She responded quietly. "An old enemy… and friend… and someone I was very close to. Today is the day he left my life forever. I was cursed, you know?" She didn't say much after that. "Even before I knew about Crystal Tokyo, I was supposed to be unlucky in love forever. That was how it went."

She brought the umbrella back over her, even though she was drenched by rainwater now and stood up to look at him. "When I become a soldier someday, I won't be able to do stuff like this anymore. I know you're pretty annoyed by me, Kuwa-kun, but you've also given me something to be really happy about, even if I'm just your friend." She began walking back down as the rain slowed to a small drizzle. She felt something grab her by the back of her knees and the other, supporting her back as he carried her.

"You're gonna slip and crack your head open if you walk all the way back in heels."

Minako didn't flirt. Didn't say anything. Just held the umbrella above the two of them, as they walked back to the train station


	5. Plot Holes of Reality

I would like to point out that all characters in the story have hit their twenties. Peace.

* * *

><p>"Ya called yourself a love goddess." Kuwabara said gruffly, picking at the bento bought from the country supermarket. Lately, food just tasted terrible if Makoto didn't make it. The sun was setting on the wheat fields and the last train back to Tokyo wasn't due for two hours. The town was small and crowded, aged from the sixties and looking as if it had never changed since then. The kids still wore dated uniforms and the residents old, keeping up shops that were funded almost entirely by the locals. Minako couldn't finish her bento. She stuffed it into a trash can next to her and stood up.<p>

"Yeah, but now that I think about it, Artemis probably was dramatizing that part…" After all, her memory didn't expand to how long ago Silver Millennium really was. She might have predated the Ancient Greeks for all she knew. She wasn't sure if it was a comfort that there were still things she could rule out in her life as true fantasy. "Come on. I saw a cute antique shop that won't close for a while…"

"…"

"What?" Minako looked over her shoulder. "I'm not going to bug you into buying things for me. I'm not even going to call this a date." Of course, Minako hadn't ascended past whatever went beyond 'Eternal Sailor Venus', so the energy was still there, still waiting to be expended, and still mostly directed at him. But it made her tired, and Kuwabara didn't deserve it. She should have directed it to an actual jerk at school, that way, she would be tired of _them_ by the end of it. She didn't expect to meet someone chivalrous and kind no matter how outlandish she acted. At least she could see through her little love spasms to understand that. "Come on."

The shop was packed from the front to back with old treasures, nestled between old trees and had one old owner who hardly blinked when they came in. Incense burned from some indistinguishable part of the building and a fluffy cat slept on one of the chairs marked 'SALE'. This shop was more Rei's style. Old treasures in a Shinto village, several things she could have wrapped up and prepared for Rei's birthday, whenever it came. There were old kimono and western dolls and porcelain, glass, first editions of old books. The samurai took her wandering as a cue for him to look on his own. After petting the gray, fluffy cat, he turned his attention to the store.

Old sheathed katanas sat in what was probably an umbrella holder, all marked sale due to their dullness or otherwise. His hands found one- no. The right thing to say was it found his hands, because it stood alone and somewhat demanded to be picked up. Blues and oranges with a golden dragon on the scabbard- he withdrew the blade to see it was still salvageable- no, usable. "'The hell…" There are always a few, rare occasions where you see something and you know you want it, and then there are the occasions where you _need _it. "Old man, is this really just ¥1500?"

He got a grunt of a yes in response, as Kuwabara was not quite convinced this holy-feeling blade hadn't just gotten mixed up with the junk ones. He held it at his side with almost an overprotectiveness (even though there was no one else in the store, his posture certainly declared 'I'm walking out with this') and started looking at other items, even though he'd already ascertained himself he'd found the best one- wait. There were silk kanzashi taking up all the space on a cork board. In the same colors of his new katana, one was folded with blue and orange flowers, complimented with red and gold folded silk falling in strands from the little bouquet. He picked it up, turned it over in his hand- though it looked dated, the clip on the back was a regular hair clip.

He paid up front, said no wrapping on the kanzashi. Minako was looking at statues of crows she could undoubtedly not lift an inch since they were made out of pure stone, but would look good at Rei's temple- maybe she should reconsider the crow mirror? Then, the feeling of someone taking a lock of her hair from the right side and pinning something in it, with rough but gentle hands. Instead of asking 'what the hell?' she decided to look at the closest antique mirror. Now complimenting her red ribbon was an elegant bouquet of silk flowers.

_Where had she felt that?_

Gruff hands that messed with her hair. "Geez- I could've bought it." For once, she was bashful, pulled a lock of long blonde hair over her shoulder as she admired it in the mirror. This would look- feel… a lot better matching with her senshi outfit than the red ribbon, wouldn't it? But she'd always worn the red ribbon because of Sailor V. Like taking baby steps, she pulled the red ribbon out, and left just the kanzashi in.

_"This looks like me."_

It didn't look like the teenager who started Senshi work first and introduced last. "Hey… thanks, Kuwa-kun. You really know my colors."

"I- er. You all seem color coded, and that one looked the most like you." His voice was gruff and wasn't sure where to take the compliment. Oranges and blues and a touch of gold, that's- that would be the clothing she'd wear for the next nine hundred years. Her face fell a bit in the mirror upon realizing that. Her face had sharpened from the round look it had in her youth, her eyes starting to look like that of an adult's. Her lips felt like they had a more prominent color even without lipstick. She was really growing up, and a ribbon on the back of her head… didn't fit a grown-up girl. She picked up the book she found for Ami, an ornate comb for Rei, and cute carved jewelry box for Makoto, and started walking to the store owner to pay.

She would have felt like an adult, if she didn't stub her sandals on the heavy stone statue and hissed out a "SsssssssSONofa-!" on the way out.

* * *

><p>"We missed the train, didn't we?"<p>

They snuck away from the station to test out his 'you seriously only paid that much for it? seriously?' sword on the wheat fields nearby. The small glance he'd gotten at it revealed it was as sharp as a new sword would be, the metal was simultaneously thin and thick, made like they would craft them in the old way. One quick slash into the overgrown brush had cut it finer than a razor. He marveled at it- no blade should be that sharp, until he realized a little bit of gold was emanating off of it. His spiritual power had made it sharper, made it new. He never really considered the idea of channeling, his previous sword had been enough. But Minako cheered as he leveled the grass with it, then ran with her as the two realized they'd angered _several _snakes by cutting away their hidden home. They talked for a long time- a really, really long time, swapping stories of their teammates, their victories in alternation until dusk fell and they couldn't tell the way back to the station.

By now, Kuwabara knew more about Minako than any non-senshi person, including her mother. And Minako didn't quite know him as well as his three patron allies or his older sister, but she knew him a bit better than most. It was amazing, enthralling that so many people could be so different from them, and so important to the world. "Were you going to ever give it up?"

"I'unno." There was a 1 AM train they couldn't miss, so no more excursions too far away from the station. "Maybe if I like, settled down, I'd pass the mantle to the new kids."

"New kids?"

He shrugged. "There's always new kids. What, y'think me'n Urameshi were the first ones? Maybe for our line of work, but there's always someone new. I- sorry, I know you've got a lot on your plate for the future, I shouldn't've said that."

"It's fine. Besides, you should be happy for that, right?" Her red ribbon was still in her purse, and the kanzashi still in her hair. "There's always going to be people who will let you relax, who will save the day, just so you don't have to jump in and do it yourself. We're big girls now. You should- go do what makes you happy, you know?"

He had that girl, she reminded herself. He could live happily whenever Crystal Tokyo came to pass, another reason for her to support it. Her new friend would be living in a peaceful world, but that was only until he interrupted her.

"But- I think what makes me happy is-… when I protect things. I mean, I got people who make me happy, yeah, but I'm not gonna feel right, ever, if I give up hunting down creeps 'cause you guys are on the case. That's not right. Even if we end up bein' the only two sets of supernatural people in the world, like, what the hell kind of mindset is that? I want to do my part to protect you as much as you do your part to protect us."

He stammered after that, definitely not what he was intending to say or how to say it, but she could understand. "It's not fair to divide it to just one person, is it?"

"Hell no! You're going to be protecting everything on the planet, right? What kind of guy would I be if I left it to someone who'll probably be fighting humans for the right to protect them, first?" One topic they skittered around was the plausibility of Crystal Tokyo. Minako candidly brought up that every country on the planet _would _probably viciously oppose the idea, including Japan, perhaps especially Japan. He agreed. Minako said that there was a crystal their leader possessed that could do anything… but brainwash the world was one thing she would never, ever do. She had fought for the freedom and rights of humanity for so long that Usagi would never entrap someone in their own mind just for 'their own good'. She knew that would make her a villain before a savior. So what was the future world going to be like?

Were they going to protect rebellious people for their own good?

"Hey, will you be my knight?"

"-huh?"

"Keep that sword close to you and protect me. I'm still a princess of an entire planet, so I need a knight to make sure that no matter how many battles I face, I still have one person who believes in me who isn't just on my team." Minako glanced towards him, finally smiling out of something that wasn't pheromone or wistful. An actual, if small smile. "Usagi-chan has a king, but I'm okay. If I just have a knight, I'll be happy. And fighting through Crystal Tokyo's early years will be a lot easier… you already said you won't give up protecting things. So will you protect me, too?"

"…" Minako had been acting insane before, but there was no curve or bounce to her voice that she had before when she fawned over him. It was an honest question. And he had to take it into serious consideration. She had told him her entire story while sitting on a rusted swing set near the wheat fields in that country town, as easily as any normal person, from V to Venus. What anyone else would consider bubble brained, he saw…

A terrified soldier. One that would never give up, but was terrified, absolutely terrified of what was to come. While she had every girl to rely on, it seemed none of them could share their thoughts regarding their fear. That's why she was coming to rely on him.

"Y'can't boss me around." He conceded, finally. "Samurai or knight, they protect with instinct, guts! You can't tell me to stand down when I need to fight just like you do, otherwise, you're not asking me to be a real knight!"

She went silent, then nodded. She slipped that treasured red ribbon out of her pocket and handed it to him.

"This has been with me since the dawn of history. So take it as a favor from the Goddess of Love and proof of your oath!" She was finally getting into it, exaggerating her tone to be _properly_ dramatic. He accepted, and not a moment later, their train pulled in.

* * *

><p>Makoto turned her baseball cap forward as she walked through an old part of Tokyo with Yusuke. "I can't imagine you're doing well facing your friends."<p>

"I'm doing fine enough." He responded, gruffly. "It's just that when you get to the end of the big story and everything is supposed to be happily ever after, people expect things from you. I think after a while I forgot Keiko even h-" He stopped himself to make an upset look directed mostly at himself. Makoto glanced his way, asking him to continue.

"I… I think I forgot she even had a _choice_. Like, we had some banter about it before I left, but, I never thought it'd just- after you deal with the crazy world after so long, you expect some things to stay the same forever." He stopped every few paces for her to window shop. He could figure out why her apartment was so clean and overdecorated- it seemed outside of killing youma, that interior decorating was her only good outlet these days. "But that just goes to show what an idiot I am."

"No one's story is meant to finish a certain way. Maybe we see too many movies or TV shows that show us from start to finish we all have a soulmate and have them for a certain reason, but love isn't like that." She pushed the door into a new store- candles, new age occult things, and handmade crafts. She'd never been here before, so it warranted more than a glance in the window. "It's not like- I dunno, a video game, where you get someone's affection to the max and they stay that way forever. How you feel about people is always changing, and how they feel about you, the same way. You might have taken it for granted, but…" It stung him, but Yusuke waited for the words that would follow up. "And even as the big romantic I am, I think most people could see how you started thinking that way." She concluded.

"Really? I've gotten earfuls from her friends even though she's the one who broke it off-"

Makoto picked up a few charms, eyes attracted to patterns of green and pink. "Packs of lionesses are usually far scarier than male lions."

"That metaphor is dumb."

She rolled her eyes. "People- both men and women, are quick to blame people who cause pain to those close to them regardless of how much fault they have. I don't know how it works in your group of guys, but I'm sure there's a hidden overprotective gene when someone gets knocked down and out, right? I'm sure there has to be something there."

"I'm not exactly talking about it to them. Kuwabara was just kinda flabbergasted and Kurama and Hiei didn't really… well, they didn't care in the sense that they would ask me why or how, they just sort of accepted it for what it was, I think."

She handed him the things she started picking out for herself as her arms were getting full. "Sounds like they knew exactly why, if I'm guessing right."

"What?"

The benefits of being tall was being able to reach the cute cushion on the very top of the shelf without asking for help. "You're not dumb, Yusuke. If you were an ass who broke some girl's heart for no reason, I wouldn't be talking to you right now. People who are quiet and perceptive- which I have some experience with -tend to catch on. Of course they wouldn't tell you, it's not their business. And… well, they're guys." Her shrug was non-committal. "They either assumed you knew, or wondered what you were doing, or assumed this was just how your relationship worked- and they saw how it turned out."

That seemed to fit the more silent two a lot more than he thought previously. He wouldn't encroach on either of their relationships beyond teasing and being a bit of a jerk- so she was right, it was just a guy thing. At the very least, in their case. He wordlessly helped her carry things to the cashier and leave to the overcast city. He watched as she drifted off, lost in thought.

Both bags in tow, Makoto unknowingly started to people watch. _I'll be responsible for you, and you, and you, and you too. And your children, and your children's children…_ every face she picked out made her heart pound. She was, at most, staring out at four hundred people within her line of sight. And this city, this planet, had so many more. How were the senshi going to deal with overpopulation and world hunger over the next _thousand years_? That had been on the news when she woke up. Were they going to move people to the moon? Figure out how to make Mars hospitable? Her head dropped and she let out a rather unladylike 'guh'.

"This is the only time I'm going to ask this, ever."

He cocked his eyebrow, wondering what she could even begin to mean by that.

"I want a drink. No, I want several."

* * *

><p>He'd borrowed a few bottles of wine from his mom's house, left her money to buy something nicer than what was probably drugstore alcohol. It tasted like gutter water to Makoto's finely-tuned tea senses, but she downed it anyway. Sparks felt like they were flying in the air, as if her emotions amplified everything. She'd arranged her nice, new purchases, then dove into the wine expecting that the loss of lucidity would be some sort of blessing. "It's gotta be more than law."<p>

"What?" Yusuke had a few cold cans of beer for himself, cracking open the first one. "What do you mean?"

"Our _leader_ is studying law, but really, there's so many subjects that you have to be an astronomical genius to be the leader of Crystal Tokyo. I know we have Ami, but Ami isn't the crown princess- queen, whatever. I know Usagi has this magic about her that makes people believe in her, but she's also easily manipulated." She frowned, as if admitting that was a patron sin. "Not by 'the enemy', but I keep imagining her getting eaten up by politicians and the media and I get so scared for her, I just want her to call the whole thing off."

"So… why doesn't she?" The beer similarly tasted like gutter water, but he kept drinking anyway, feeling like if you're going to drink out of 'screw everything' you might as well do it together. "I mean if you have a magic crystal that can fix everything- why not?"

Makoto rested a palm to her forehead. "Because of her daughter."

"… what?"

"That's why we know about the future." The senshi pushed the now-empty mug aside and just opted for the whole bottle. "Her daughter came from the future to learn from us how to be a sailor senshi. And if the future Chibiusa knew doesn't pass…" She made a hand gesture.

He was starting to get it. "No guarantee Chibiusa comes to pass."

"Right." She was finally starting to sip the wine instead of drinking it as easily as one would water. "We all love Chibiusa… we wouldn't do anything to threaten her future or her existence. And she would be the Chibiusa we've always known… not following how the future is supposed to go would be like killing her. And it's not like we don't know peace eventually comes to pass… There's just a big gap between now and nearly a thousand years for all of that horrible stuff to happen."

Yusuke tried thinking about this timeline- and it wasn't his specialty, but something felt wrong. One fresh timeline where the girls grow up without knowing the brat, Usagi has Chibiusa, then sends her into the past. Did that suddenly rewrite the memories of the future? No, how the hell would that make sense? Unless- no. He didn't know jack about her situation, much less should be giving serious input on it.

"What is it?" Perceptive even when she was trying to get drunk.

"I'unno, what if- big what if, what if that kid comes to pass no matter what future you make? Like, it seems like 'either she's erased from history' or 'she creates herself in history'… and neither of those goddamn options make any sense! I didn't go back in time and hook up my parents, then remind them- oh hey, make me in the future. That's sick- and well, it doesn't make any sense. What if she just happens no matter what?"

"But she won't be the Chibiusa we _know_."

A pause. "Aside from all the stuff she told you… did you actually ever _see_ the future?"

She couldn't tell where he was trying to take it, and pushed the bottle of wine aside, wiping her mouth. "… no. She was the only one who time traveled."

"What did she look like? I just- humor me."

What was he even getting at? "Pink hair… red eyes, Usagi's face. She looked a lot like Usagi, and she had a crystal that could only come from Usagi." She reached for the wine again. He looked cocky and it gave her the sudden urge to shoot down whatever theory he was trying to cook up when he barely knew anything about Chibiusa to start with.

"What if she wasn't who you thought she was?"

Makoto sighed. "You're drunk."

He wagged a finger before she slapped it aside. "One can won't do that to me. I mean, you have it on authority of the time woman, and the pink kid. Maybe…" He started making vague gestures with his hands. "Butterfly effect. A butterfly flaps its wings and something explodes on the other half of the world. Maybe things had to be just so…" Now he was making drunken gestures, putting his hands together without touching, iconifying 'narrow'. "So set up, that you guys had to be lied to? I mean, a city made out of crystal, a world that obeys one sovereign ruler without any hesitation, utopian peace… that sounds like the daydream of a little kid sent to the past who had to make up a story about a future you guys weren't supposed to know."

Makoto started to laugh, then, fraction by fraction, cogs started turning. They looked like their original forms in the future, so they'd been told, but they'd undergone so many transformations that they would have at least looked 'eternal', wouldn't they? And aside from that, what are the utter odds that the girls, as they were, would look exactly the same in the future? No haircuts, no immediately recognizable difference. She tried remembering everything she could about Chibiusa. They had been given the date by Pluto when she'd be born- same day as Usagi, the 30th of June. Of all the days of the year, how was that logical? There were more and more holes in the story of the future the more she thought about it.

"You're either a genius or I'm honestly drunk thinking about this." She said after a while.

"Your pink informant leaving you with doubts?"

She shook her head. "I can't tell the others this, I'll look like a traitor. Like I disbelieve, like-"

"If they're your friends, they have as much of an interest in the future as you do. Especially if you're going to be in charge of it for a thousand years."

Makoto silently nodded, and corked the wine bottle. She didn't need to be drunk.

"What would I do without you?"

"-hnn?"

The phrase was loaded. It usually meant a lot more than saying it at random. She scratched the back of her head, suddenly realizing her folly in saying it. "I mean, I would have never even considered that as an option until you brought it up."

"You know what I think?"

"What?"

"How the hell did we become each other's sole confidantes, thunder thighs?"

Makoto punched him in the arm. Yusuke conceded he deserved it.

* * *

><p>It had been the first time in a while since Usagi and the senshi gathered, though most alarming was Usagi called it a 'meeting' and that it was important. Just outside Rei's temple, the priestess herself, Ami, Minako with her new hairpiece, and Makoto looking concerned, all focused on their leader, who was looking at the ground with concerned eyes.<p>

"You… remember when Pluto gave us a paper of important dates, right? And now it's April… and it's a little over two years until I become queen."

They all murmured 'yeah's in unison and waited for her to continue. Usagi looked at them. "Well, I- am not going to have Chibiusa for three years, more or less. That was the time I was told. I was even given a date of conception for me and Mamo-chan to focus on."

…. There was more nodding, all the girls rising to stand, sensing there was something wrong.

"… Chibiusa-chan never had a big sister, a- and she was born on June 30th. And April means January is nine months from now."

Her voice began to crack, even though all four girls rushed to her side with worry, knowing what she was about to say.

"So why am I going to have a baby?


	6. A Strict Progression of Cause to Effect

They didn't have a royal palace-like wedding. With Usagi's parent's blessing, they were married outside in simple formal wear before the baby would ever show. A western style wedding, at the very least, was what Usagi dreamed of, and on the beach, that was exactly what she would get with trembling gloves in her husband's hands as the master of ceremony pronounced them. There was firm applause from the wedding crowd, Yusuke staring pointedly at the couple and slapping his palms together and trying not to focus on the fact that Keiko had been invited as a dear friend of the bride and groom. At the small reception, they exchanged words, got up to date on why the small world was such a small world. She knew them through college, he knew the girls through crime fighting, they had both watched a wedding.

"Yusuke," She began, sipping on a fine crystal glass of champagne.

"What, Keiko?"

Her eyes were warm staring at him, and it unsettled him and comforted him at the same time. It wasn't like looking at someone he once promised was the one person more important than him long ago, but the kid who rubbed sand in his hair even longer ago. It was like looking at his old best friend instead of his fiancée. It hurt, but at the same time, it felt like a step in the direction he wanted to go.

"I think we're both meant for great things. A long time ago, I would have only said that about you, and I was just a carry-on, deep down. But when I watched Usa and Mamo get married, I realized my life is just as important as anyone's on this planet, and I think more than doing something for my self esteem, it proved to me that… no matter where we go, you're going to be my best friend. And I want you to support me, because I'm going to support you, unless you do something so stupid I have to scold you for it."

He looked across the room, and all of a sudden, really wished he had sunglasses so his gaze could not be traced. Makoto wasn't slim- she had toned arms that looked out of place with the thin-strapped pale green dress she wore, she was far from idol-looking and her weight definitely didn't hit double-digits as opposed to triple. She was built like an amazon, but she was more than her looks. Amidst Princess Fire-themed, with her hand on the bride's and comforting her, Princess Ice-themed who was explaining the science of the situation to a few others, and Princess Love-and-Metal themed, who was having a quiet exchange with Kuwabara that he couldn't overhear, Makoto looked like the only confident one, the only one who didn't look scared, even though he _knew_ better, that she was scared. For her princess and her future. She might not be the heavy-thinking genius of the team, but like him, she was there no matter what.

"'M not gonna do something stupid." He finally said. "In fact, from now on, I want to do the best for whatever happens next."

"I'm not an idiot." Keiko responded. "I know that doesn't include me."

"I know." He finally sighed. "So whatever happy ending you have, my last gift is gonna be making sure it stays safe. Just like these girls are doing for the bride."

He really both had and hadn't changed at all. It could almost make her cry, but the tension in the air was far more than enough for everyone as it was. Someone needed to smile and applaud for Usagi and do their very best to live happily in her honor, and she might have been the only person at that small party who could really be able to do that.

So Keiko smiled, applauded, kissed Usagi on both cheeks, and talked about baby names with her.

* * *

><p>"Have you guys decided on what to do?"<p>

Makoto was wearing a leather jacket over her dress as the two walked home from the party, making her look like a strange sight in Tokyo, but certainly not the strangest thing, with billowing bridal satin behind her. "We're going to wait for the child to be born before we decide anything. We have to make sure she's Chibi-usa. Pink hair, red eyes… she might end up with blue eyes and black hair and be some total anomaly, you know?" Her makeup had started to fade from 'iconically princessy' to 'the Makoto he was used to seeing and honestly preferred'. She'd been wearing spaghetti-strap heels at the wedding, but now opted for some black and white sneakers on the walk home. Today had been a firm day of keeping up appearances. Now she safely didn't care.

He pat her back gently, knowing there wasn't a whole lot he could say. "… hey. Do you want to go to the park?"

"What?"

He gestured to a small children's park across the street. Empty at this hour and old-looking, as if it hadn't been updated or 'safety-proofed' since it was built. Nothing but metal and climbing and what one could assure were hundreds and hundreds of scraped knees. She raised an eyebrow at him, then shrugged. "Sure, why not?" was all she said when they wove through traffic to cross the street less than legally and walk in, wood chips crunching underneath their feet. They were quite a sight. Formal clothes and jackets and tennis shoes and she opted for a high- seated swing so her feet and dress wouldn't drag along the ground. He lept up to the monkey bars and pulled what some would call a few acrobatic stunts, but was really just child's play to him. Climbing from bar to bar with his knees hooking themselves into the next one backflipping to grab the next bar, so on.

"You're fidgety."

"I got closure." He finally said, pulling himself to sit on the very top of the bar. "It's over completely. No dramatics with any tears, just parting our own ways for good. And it felt good- well, it still hurts like a bitch, but I'm finally starting to see Keiko like I used to, used to. Like… I'm fine being friends again. It's still kinda awkward, but not so bad that I can't see me getting over it- _god_, I sound like a woman. No offense."

"Offense taken." Makoto replied flatly. "You've known her your whole life, just because you're a guy doesn't mean you're some- ripped demon god that's totally free of emotions or responsibility like your grandpa. You're still unfortunately human like the rest of us. Denying important facets of yourself becomes weakness." She began to swing back and forth on the swing set, green silk rippling in the wind as she swung. "The majority of how I've grown as a fighter hasn't been leveling up like a video game, but discovering what's inside that made me a better fighter all around."

There was a brief flashback to his fight with Yomi. "Yeah, yeah, Sailor Guru. I'll keep that one in mind. What are you going to do with yourself for the next- I don't know, seven months? When your leader has the kid?"

"Keep Tokyo safe." She stopped swinging to respond with a grave tone. "Now that our leader really can no longer fight, we need to find the source of everything that's happening and get rid of it- we can't have our leader transforming when she's pregnant, we can't let the threat grow, and-" Her hands gripped the chains tightly. "You know, nearly a year ago I would never have asked this of you, but Yusuke, I… I need your help. All of your friend's help. You kick ass on a regular basis, you start tournaments just for that sake. You're something like our leader, you're something special. If push comes to shove, we'll need a frontman instead of a team of elementals."

There wasn't a terrible amount of light in the park. There was the moon and city lights and the lightening blue in the sky soon to become the rising sun, and yet her green eyes had never been more clear. It wasn't an admittance of weakness, it was the strength to cast aside pride to understand what was necessary for the greater good. This reddish-brunette girl in a leather jacket and a bridesmaid dress and sneakers, if he could forgive the dumbass cliche running through his head, was someone he'd never felt more drawn to her before this moment. She had been a great friend ever since their animosity waned, a confidant and a new member of what he considered his team. And her eyes were asking him for help.

"Yusuke, no matter what future comes to pass, I want it to be one I'm proud of. Please help us kick the ass of whatever's showing it's sorry face around Tokyo. I'm not just asking you because Usagi's out of commission. I'm asking you because I know you can do it."

She'd never been more earnest. She wasn't playing to his ego, she was asking someone she was close to, because of the uncertain future and because she knew she didn't have a choice- or perhaps she did, and she knew this was the only smart one. He could refuse easily, but…

"I'll do it. We'll have this done and over with before Usagi can realize there was ever anything wrong in the first place."

Wouldn't he be breaking his promise to Keiko as well, if he refused her plea? He jumped down from the iron bars and started walking over to her. He stuck out his hand. And when she tentatively put it in his, he yanked her up off the swing set to her feet. "I promised someone today, in exchange for handing in my 'get out of a hectic life free' card, I'd keep this world safe. But that promise? Goes beyond her. I'm gonna do it for you too. You're more than just the lightning chick or the person I go to talk to. You're…"

He felt like scum. He admits he finally felt like he had closure, and here he was holding another girl's hand and spouting earnest, from-the-heart nonsense that he really shouldn't have let his mouth begin flapping at. However, now she was searching him for answers, her eyes glancing all over every feature of his face for the next part of the sentence, most likely 'my friend' and she was bracing for that. He opened his mouth twice for words to come out and stopped himself both times.

"You're something else." The phrase he gave up on, but she didn't show any visible disappointment.

She sighed, tightened her grip on his hand. "Yeah, I know. Minute I got a pen that magically ribboned me into a super suit, I knew that. Let's go back to my place. Minako and her knight are crashing there. Told her she could, since she lives in another district. Let's go."

* * *

><p>"What's the monster like?"<p>

Minako had gotten rid of her pastel orange bridesmaid dress for a set of Makoto's oversized pajamas. She opened a can of soda and turned on the TV, channel surfing. He was kicked up on the couch behind her. "They're leaving people with amnesia in hospitals. Spirit-stealers is all we can call them. The soul and the spirit are different, you know? Taking someone's soul will leave you a husk, but your spirit is you- the thing that doesn't get reincarnated. It's your persona, your personality. They're two different things, and whatever group is stealing them isn't out for life energy. It's out for the spirit." Her kanzashi had been placed gently on the end table near the couch. "What makes them dangerous is, unless we catch the bad guy and kill them, these amnesiacs will stay in the hospital and have no idea who they are or why these people are trying to help them. The news is already trying to pin it on a disease, and panic is spreading, but luckily they've been so clinical and- I'unno, Luna's been so convincing that Usagi and Mamoru haven't caught on."

Her eyes had shadows under them now that she had cleaned off her makeup. She was tired and overworked. "Yo, Mina…" He'd taken to calling her that nickname, few were permitted and certainly no boy was permitted. "You've been out every night working at this, haven't you?"

"Yeah." She settled on a travel network. "So the hospitals keep calling it a 'phasing disease'. People suddenly remember who they are when their spirits fly back into them and go home safe and sound. We can't let the scientists think it's a permanent thing, and the faster we find the source, the faster it can blow over. They'll say it was some sort of poisoning in the water and we'll all be done, safe and sound, and history'll forget it." The caffeine of the drink wasn't helping her, but he snatched it away from her regardless. An energy drink she'd picked up from a machine outside Makoto's apartment. She must've been living off them if her body had adapted.

"…"

"What? Kuwa-kun, you know everything I just said makes sense. We can't let the disease start putting people in a panic. Haruka and Michiru are doing patrol tonight. We're all taking turns." She tried snatching the drink back but he held it out of her grip. "Come on-"

"No way. You're just gonna make yourself sick- and didn't you say I was your knight? Why aren't you bringing me along to help? That's my _job!_"

She stopped for a minute and looked away. "Yeah… sorry, I guess I'm still used to flying solo that having one given partner in saving people hasn't sunk in yet." She blinked- her eyelids really were heavy, how had she not noticed that before? She rested her head against the couch and yawned twice- once genuinely, and twice because they were contagious. Her feet ached and her hands throbbed as if this was her only night off- to be honest, it was. When the other senshi claimed to pick up the schedule, she still went out. She considered it part of being a leader. Don't let anyone fight their own battles… you have to be there for them.

"I'm sorry." She looked up at him with tired eyes. "I won't do it again, okay? But you've got to keep your phone on- we only do this at night. And you've got to disguise yourself."

"What? Since when did I-"

"You'll be rolling with an icon. If just one person recognizes you, you'll be interrogated about who I am. Believe me, I know how it feels, but you have to make sure no one can recognize you for your own good, not just mine."

Kuwabara sighed, and pulled himself off the couch to go pour out the energy drink (hearing her groan from the other room at the noise). The very nice thing about Makoto's fridge was that it always had something- compulsive shopping and cooking kept leftovers in constant stock. He pulled out a plate of fully wrapped onigiri and two bottles of root beer. Not the most well-matched night snack, but they weren't exactly well-matched either.

He really was looking out for her, she reflected as she sipped her new drink. He'd taken his vow utterly serious, even protecting her from her own bad habits. Chivalrous and kind didn't even begin to describe it. She attempted brotherly, but the myth that big brothers looked out for little sisters remained only in manga. All the siblings she'd met had been teasing and distant for the other cramping their style until they grew up. Her heart beat that same old adrenaline when she considered he was looking out for her because she was _her_ and not anyone else. Because she'd confided in him and he confided in her, and he gave her a strange look mid-bite of an onigiri when she looked up at him. Bah, that energy. She couldn't wait for her clothes to change and the excess to stop so she could know what she was really feeling.

"Cover what you don't want seen up!" Makoto shouted teasingly when she opened the door to her apartment, earning a pillow thrown at her by Minako. "Hey, hey, just kidding. I knew you wouldn't be asleep." Another check for Kuwabara that even her friends knew Minako refused to sleep if she could fight crime. Yusuke kicked off his dress shoes and slumped into a free chair. "It's 1 in the morning, Makoto, you don't have to make anythi-"

He was silenced by the sound of the oven being turned on, rolling his eyes. "Does she do that because she wants to, or is it habit?"

"Both." Minako took another sip of her root beer. "She's a great cook and she loves to cook, so- she cooks. That's it. And there's enough of a party here with the three of us for her to want to make something… even if it is the middle of the night." She snapped her fingers again and again until they finally made a snapping noise. "Yusuke! Go downstairs to that movie-renting vending machine. Get something good, 'cause none of us are sleeping if Makoto is cooking."

"Why me?"

"Because. Go-!"

He groaned, and- shoeless, hopped down to pick a few movies. No horror- not because those girls would get scared, but because they'd already seen enough uglies in real life to sit through two hours of the story of one. A few comedies. Why not? He sniffed the air- whatever Makoto was making smelled good, and the people who lived in her complex must get hungry daily just by living near her. And when he got upstairs, he realized he had the weirdest luck with groups of four.

They always seemed complimentary, and even when they bickered and laughed and teased one another, it always seemed right.

* * *

><p>"Pluto." Haruka, in senshi garb, had called out to the Time Guardian. The missing anomaly. "You should have been here sooner. We've got a lot of questions."<p>

"I know you do…"

"So answer them."

Haruka was not in the mood to play games. She'd seen her princess get wonderful news and only feel fear from it, all on the hinge of time. Of the truth they had come to believe on the wings of someone who said it would all come to pass. They were close comrades, but the senshi of Uranus was the only one who would dare lay down the truth bare for everyone to see and understand it. "You've lied to Usagi or something has gone wrong."

"I've done neither."

The rebuttal was met with a sword under her chin- while Uranus would never strike, she wanted to make her point _visually_ clear. "The word games, the toying with the future, everything stops. We must know the truth or you are steering this world into a brutal end. Even the inner senshi closest to the princess know the threat of what will happen if Crystal Tokyo isn't met with acceptance, when, at this stage, it would _never_ be. And as for her daughter, you must have deliberately given us the wrong date, or-"

The Time Senshi's gaze remained cold and professional, even daring to reach out and put her hand on Haruka's, lowering the sword. "If you want answers, I will give them to you… Epsilon Sailor Uranus."

"Wh-?"

Pluto tapped the Time Key onto the ground with force- freezing the world around them, making the door she had guarded eternally visible. "Inside are all the answers… I will ask you not to step forward, but only to look inside the door. I trust my_ word_ after you see what is inside will be enough."

Haruka glanced back at her, and obeyed, pushing the door open with enough force for it to swing on its hinges. She froze, the expression on her face nothing less than pure shock. Pluto waited for the sight to sink in before drawing the door closed again, tapping the key on the ground once more, and returning them to reality.

"What did you see, that you did not expect to see…?" Pluto asked, evenly.

"What the _hell_…" Haruka replied, her usually steady voice gone shaking. "Why are there multiple paths through _time_?"

* * *

><p>I'd say that the cliffhanger was an April Fools, but it's not. It's just the cutoff for the next chapter!<p>

I gotta give a shout-out to one of my readers. Sailor Taurus Angel, your review made my month. I am honored you feel this way about my story, and I hope it continues to deliver. And for those of you who have kept with this story so far, from start to now, I love you. I seriously do. Let's keep riding this crazy train


	7. Timelines Paved With Good Intentions

"There is the future where when Seiya and her senshi and princess departed, we lived happily ever after, for as long as the peaceful infinity the crystal could create would last. That future still exists. There was another, close to the same, although fate had given Seiya a more important role, but much had ended the same way." Pluto and Uranus had retreated to a nearby park. If Pluto was ever honest about something, it was brutally so, and she was demonstrating it quite well.

"That future still exists. So does the one where the Princess of the Moon Kingdom fell into fury when Endymion died, when her resurrection in the world Usagi was reborn in, when she used her as a vessel, she created destruction wherever she walked, and the senshi- all of us, willingly destroyed the crystal for a normal life." Uranus' eyes betrayed her shock, but Pluto went on. "That future exists as well. So does the one where war breaks out a year from now, and the technological advancement of every country on Earth, the advent of space colonies, and the fine thread of politics sweeps the ideal of superheroes underneath a rug. So do many where the Earth is threatened by something that the Senshi _cannot _do a single thing about it, and other heroes must. In many of them, Crystal Tokyo never comes to pass. Those of Lunarian blood live out their thousand year life span under switching aliases every time it becomes unfeasible for them to live in one place so long. Sometimes, our comrades die because they cannot bear the idea of such a long life. Sometimes they live happily ever after." Pluto stepped forward. "Do you understand the picture I am painting for you?"

It was Uranus' turn to scowl. "If there is one thing I really, _really_ hate, it's needless questions when someone can be up front with me. I'm not here to play guessing games with you, Setsuna. I'm here to hear what you mean by everything here."

In the soft earth, Pluto drew a single line, then branching lines from each point. Several, until she had no space. In her mind, she knew what timeline each line represented, and all she needed to give was a visual. "I am the consultant to several incarnations of Serenity. I am the ally to several versions of you. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta… I've given you all names. Your incarnation here, and everyone's I've codenamed 'Epsilon'. And yet, there is only one 'Sailor Pluto'. This secret is only known to you, Alpha and Beta Queens and Neo-Queens Serenity. It was Beta Serenity who had me send your Chibiusa to the past when Chibiusa's involvement had been revealed. However, her time was already written without Chibiusa's memories from her own past." She tapped the single line from which the other timelines branched. "Ergo, even with the key she stole, Chibiusa could not travel to her true past. She would end up in a different timeline, identical only in memory. There are several timelines where Serenity makes the choice to send Chibiusa to the past, and each time, I must pick the same, yet different timeline to put her into."

The concept was wrapping itself around Uranus' head. One timeline to start with that usually stayed the same, the first line Pluto drew, although that didn't mean it couldn't be slightly different. Same sequence of events in most cases, Then the branches, like a tree, created a new world. How many teams had Pluto served? It certainly explained that, no matter where Pluto stayed, she did not stay for _long._ She had several timelines to manage. She didn't merely stand at the door. She was weaving fate as the only constant that was present in the past and future.

"So Chibiusa will not exist?"

Pluto walked to a blooming tree instead of answering, driving the Time Key into the trunk to shake a few petals loose. Within moments, she began to swing the key in circular movements, affecting the air around one single petal. While the others fell into puddles or the ground, one solitary pink petal landed perfectly on top of a yellow daffodil, just as Pluto had guided it into doing. She turned to Uranus.

"I can do my best to guide the way the air flows through time to create the existence of someone I love dearly, however, I cannot stop the wind."

The lightest breeze picked up, and rustled the daffodil, carrying the petal away.

"I can give Usagi dates to focus on. I can occasionally get it right. But on a scientific level, on a genetic, conception, and plainly _accidental_ level, Chibiusa will not exist more often than she will. I've been successful only a handful of times, and for a while I mourned when I lost. But… to understand time, I must understand the concept that the creation of each human being is a molecular miracle. You can have the stars aligned and the right day in late September that would lead her to be born on June 30th, but even a shift in movement can create a different girl. Or a boy. This is not magic. This is reality, and Usagi has been done a disservice to be lead to believe her world will go one exact way. All of you have… and that is my burden to carry. I fight the wind for your sakes. I try to create the future I've seen you at your happiest."

"But in the end, all we've been is a gamble." Uranus lifted her head. "You try to guide the petal knowing the wind could pick up any minute and take it from you anyway."

"I have seen the worlds without my influence, to see if the natural order happens without my input. That theory sadly doesn't pan out, and without the guidance of time and power of the final sailor crystal of the Solar System, people end up dead."

Uranus' brow furrowed, her voice snapping- "Then how are we supposed to treat Chibiusa now? Or Usagi for that matter? How, when you knew the odds were against you, do you think any of this is going to turn out okay? And just because you can travel through time, I know you can't give me a straight answer- I am not asking for the future, I'm asking for right now!"

Her allotted time in this timeline was starting to wane. She would have to depart soon. "Usagi has many different reactions based on the world she is in. In some she takes on voracious denial and tries again and again, and sometimes she will have a pink haired, red eyed younger daughter and 'make her' into Chibiusa with the best intentions. In others, she will mourn and never quite treat the child she gets as genuinely as she should- but ideally, she realizes Chibiusa became the same as all the allies that had come to them and left them- she was a memory held dear who fought alongside them during their best years. The mourning will never wane, but for the people important to her, she lets her emotional scars fade."

The wind rustled and soon carried away all the petals she had knocked away from the tree. "This will be among the last few times you see me in this world. I must move on to timeline Sigma and play my role until I am no longer needed… that world is presently a lot more dangerous than this one is. I wish this timeline every blessing. I have only watched so far as to this direct point in time, where I walk away."

"Pluto- Pluto! Why are- why are you-" Uranus chased after her, hand reaching for her shoulder.

"Because free will is the greatest gift of all to this timeline now. I will no longer chart your map."

And the daughter of Chronos was gone.

* * *

><p>When Yusuke had first mocked the senshi uniform, he was starting to finally see its practicality. While the skirts were a pervert's dream, they were fully mobile, and as a team of elementals, heavy armor that could bulk down their speed was more of a detriment than any help. The white fabric that protected the torso (he finally got to feel a bit of it after arguing with Makoto that he was curious if a leotard was ever feasible, and touched the top of her shoulder blade under her sailor collar) was not <em>human<em> fabric. Demons and monsters could probably rip it if they got up close and personal but not manmade weapons or the weaker spectrum. He'd argue it but they'd never gotten ribs broken, internally bruised or bleeding or sent to the hospital as an entire team. So as much as he wanted to knock the uniforms, he couldn't.

Makoto and Minako were trying to do their damnedest inside that small apartment to make them look completely incognito. The lunar compact wasn't going to change them- certain magical artifacts only worked for the senshi, after all. And there was a lot to be up against. Recordings that could analyze audio footage and analysts who could draw a perfect facial sketch based on an eyewitness account. After endless debate and argument, the two agreed to a very loose hoodie each that covered the features of their face with shadow, and a mask that slid over their eyes. Regular clothes and everything else were normal enough to be overlooked.

The four were, for once, joined by the fire and ice. Rei was busy abusing an already well-loved map with circling locations to scout for the night, while Ami studied a floating orb in a glass case.

"This is the manifestation of a stolen spirit."

"- Christ, why are you keeping it in a box, then?" Yusuke flipped up his hoodie angrily, partly to be seen, another part because he was getting hot. "Open it and let it go back to the amnesiac who's missing it!"

Ami frowned and Rei looked up from the map with a slight scowl. "It doesn't matter, when we let them go, they'll fly to the underworld. The person this spirit belongs to is already dead." Rei went back to tapping the paper with the end of the pen. "It's not like it's uncommon for people to panic when their loved ones don't remember them. Sometimes the panic sinks in and they feel like the person they love is already gone for good, so they should finish the mortal half." That's right. Rei could speak to spirits, he vaguely remembered. She most likely heard the seventh voice in the room when no one else did. "This one volunteered for our study before it passes on."

"Right." Ami continued. "There's more to a spirit than life energy. The will, power, and motivation when more than one spirit is consumed often causes chaos in the host body- the monster eating them. But everything encountered so far is mindless, so the creatures eating them aren't exactly having the mental battle we would if we tried eating just one. The monster harnesses the power and strength of as many human spirits as it swallows and becomes stronger by the day. That's why they are best killed as soon as humanly possible."

Ami opened the glass lid that contained the spirit, and it sped off through the window and disappeared into the night. "There is no leader. These are not a common cause breed of demons, these are completely monsters. Perhaps they were left here by something, but they're certainly no longer guided by them. Their evolution is enough chaos. The ones that feed where we can't see them get stronger- it's not a hard image to imagine. All they have to do is keep eating until just one of us can't take them down. My theory is…" She opened her compact computer, worry ever-present on her expression.

"These monsters were planted here to interrupt Serenity's rise to the throne. They were not meant to be discovered as early as we found them or cleared out as we do. They were meant to devour things in secrecy and become too powerful for us to handle unless we're all present as a team. This is an action of sabotage instead of a straight out attack. We don't know if they breed or recreate themselves as they're destroyed. We don't know if there is a host."

Minako's red ribbon had been tied in a firm knot around the hilt of Kuwabara's katana, and sitting nearby, he had been testing making the blade's edge glow with his own spiritual energy. "So the only thing we can do is hope to wipe them all out and then find the person who put them here?"

"Over the past year, I can safely estimate we've destroyed 60% of their forces. However, the 40% that remain have been here since the beginning." Ami's compact disappeared when she slipped it through her hands like a magic trick, "Which means they've had more time to eat and become stronger than the ones we have already killed. This enemy gets dangerous the further and further we progress. So yes, you are right. I just hope we're strong enough…"

Good god, Yusuke was tired of listening to it. Statistics and doing nothing that helped. He pulled the hood back over his head and crossed his legs indian style in a nearby chair. "Alright, listen up. All of you. I need all of you to look at me right now."

He waited until they did, Rei being the last to raise her head and give him her full attention.

"I'm the leader from here on out. Makoto asked me, and you can argue to hell and high water, but you're not going to be killing monsters if any of you sit around trying to justify who is worthy of what. I'm not having an ego trip, I _know_ I can level things enough to leave craters. Everything we kill tonight is just going to leave behind monsters that have time to get stronger." He made his finger into a gun shape, and pointed it up. "I'm your tank. I'm _going_ to be the thing that puts everyone at ease because of a night well accomplished and keeping your queen unsuspicious of what's happening. I need your cooperation- no lone wolfing, 'I can handle this on my own' unless I say you can. And yeah, Kuwabara." The ginger lifted his head. "That goes for you, too."

Yusuke finally stood up, and though the hood of his outfit covered the his eyes with shadow, he was looking towards Makoto for sign of her approval or disapproval. "A team is only worth a damn if it can keep itself together. Don't try to be a hero. I don't care if you can't see me the same way as Minako or your princess. If I say stand down, it isn't because I'm rolling up to be the big tough man. It's because you need to stand down for a reason. Are we clear as crystal?"

His words slipped under Rei's skin more than anyone else, but there was agreement from all across the board. To argue about a leader at this point would be pointless, and there was only one real strategy- ultimate takedown, something Yusuke was well versed in. "We split up to scout the city and when we find something, radio us and keep that thing distracted until we all get there. Remember that we don't know how strong these are given how much time they've had to grow so don't go blindly firing shots and getting yourself killed. This is enough. Let's get moving."

* * *

><p>Eight within one night. Predictions all across the board had been correct- these monsters were more than just big-fanged orcish creatures who ate spirits, but rather hulking beasts with visible spines, bones growing out of their skin, setting fire to buildings and eating the victims inside. Yusuke had taken down two on his own, and the others had been good shots or combinations of teamwork. It was a workout that left a throat begging for a single bottle of water to down in one go. When the sky was lightening up with a touch of blue, Yusuke gave the 'done for the night' order. As they de-transformed, and went their separate ways, Makoto found herself lying on the grass that overlooked a river bank. The cool air radiating from the earth thanks to a new day helped. It had been one of the hardest fights she'd been through yet. A constant of running from sighting to sighting and playing teamwork to bring down as many as they did.<p>

He put a water bottle near the side of her head, and her twitching, aching hands fumbled for it and she fulfilled her own prediction of drinking it nearly in one go. The unfortunate part of lying down, gravity, and drinking something led part of it to run down her cheek, but she could not bring herself to care about being girly and elegant and petite with a bottle of water. He didn't seem to care with how he was pouring the bottle he bought for himself over his head without drinking a drop of it, shaking his hair like a wet dog and rolling down on the ground next to her.

"I'm sorry if I was a hardass." He wasn't truly sorry, but he had a solid guess that the senshi didn't quite have such a bootcamp leader most of the time.

"Don't be." Makoto finally replied as her breathing returned to normal. "Because of you and Kuwabara, we killed eight when we would have killed maybe one or two on a good night. How long until we do this again?"

He wasn't going to explicitly tell her he would at least kill one a night without gathering them for a senshi pow-wow. It was hypocritical, and a guilty idea he wasn't too keen on facing her with yet. "Enough time to recover but not long enough that you forget the hurt it gave you guys tonight. A few nights. Then we go put our heads into the mind of a monster whose hungry for human spirits and doesn't want to be killed- think of the best places for one to go."

"Countryside." Makoto said, finally. "Little clinics and hospitals, places where people are already immobile. If they get the sense that the city is dangerous no matter how good the 'food' is here, they'll bide where they can get stronger little by little instead of scooping up a whole bunch of souls and subsequently getting ruined by us spotting them. Tonight was enough to send a message that no one is playing games anymore."

Yusuke nodded even if she couldn't see it, until a small fact occurred to him. "… hey. I should have gotten a hell of an electroshock when I doused myself to cool off." He sat up, touching his arms, poking her- "Makoto, it's gone. Your static air is gone."

She stood up and started checking herself, patting her shoulders and hair. She had gotten so used to it that it didn't occur to her whenever it had left. "You're right!" She laughed, then looked for the pink pen with a green crystal atop it in her purse. What she found wasn't like the little wands the senshi had that made them so 'uniform'. Like Usagi's, it was a brooch. Underneath the green, stylized front bearing her trademark symbol was her crystal surrounded by symmetrically designed oak leaves and lightning patterns. She'd always assumed Usagi would have a brooch and the rest of them, pens or wands. Tracing her fingers across it, she felt pride, feeling like the wands were the steps to becoming her own warrior.

"What are you waiting for?" He asked, sitting up. "Doesn't this mean you're all comic-style final formed? Let's see what it looks like."

She closed her eyes and tried to listen to the words from the crystal, the incantation that came with this brooch. Her fingernails glittered with green as she drew her hand across it, as it opened itself. The wind rustled around her feet and through her hair like a miniature cyclone.

"_War Cry of the Gladiator! Jupiter Make-Up_!"

* * *

><p>"<em>Song of the Scion! Venus Make-Up!<em>"

There was one small beast left, and though she was under orders to leave all monsters alone despite orders, it was still a weakling. Kuwabara was busy throwing it around with the streaks of light left by the edge of his blade, and she had only discovered what had replaced her wand, the orange brooch designed with woven hearts. on the inside. No longer did she have a tiara, rather, her symbol became tattooed to her forehead. Aside from the bow connecting her sailor collar to the dress, it was strapless, and with reason. Two cherubic wings sprouted off the back of her shoulder blades, genuine and feathered unlike the more costume-like wings Serenity bore. Her chain no longer invisible- it looped around her waist as an honest weapon, and the stone sword she had long forgotten rested in her hands. Her over-emotional charge had ended. She was finally at the end of the cycle of power-up after power ups. Her chain lashed out at the beast, strangling it until it faded into dust, several orbs of spirits zooming out of it and to their hosts once more.

"I'm…"

Kuwabara coughed into his hand. "Wow- you look… was that supposed to happen?"

"I- yeah?" She turned around, observing the fuku from every angle she could. It looked nothing like her previous ones or even Usagi's. Had they finally become individual, each unique to every senshi? It had been long since she wielded the stone sword with poison embedded in it. All in all, she wasn't complaining. "After I stopped over-exerting energy, I was supposed to become…"

Venus looked up at him. She was prepared to see him normally for the first time. Her heart wasn't meant to beat faster, she was not meant to have extensive feelings forced out by a constant energy. Nothing had changed. She tried internally prodding her own heart for some sort of difference in view, in perception. Was she broken? Was she still over exerting energy, even though all logic said she wasn't supposed to?

She still loved him.

"Something's wrong- I need to consult Artemis. I'd walk home with you, I would, but-" The sword disappeared from her hand in sparks and her clothing reverted, her wings disappeared as she started running. He tried catching up but she was bolting until she was sure his eyes couldn't follow her anymore, that he couldn't ask what had been so wrong with a new set of clothes. He'd seen several looks on her face before.

He'd never seen that one.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: AW THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT ;; 3 Your reviews mean so much to me, to see a new one in my inbox makes my heart skip a beat. Not even joking. And since I can't foresee Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune transforming on screen quite yet, I'll go ahead and 'spoil' their final transformation cries.<p>

Mercury: "Aria of the Scholar"

Mars: "Chant of the Phoenix"

Saturn: "Silence of the Savior"

Uranus: "Roar of the Champion"

Neptune: "Ballad of the Tide"

Trivia: The Alpha Timeline would be the manga canon. The Beta timeline would be the anime canon. The Gamma timeline is PGSM, and the others are references to Sailor Moon crossover concepts- if you want to guess at them, have fun!


	8. And I Must Scream

Some preliminary notes: WOW. I have read all of your reviews at least ten times over, and they make my day each and every time. I'm so happy that you've all stuck with me this far- and have had so much to say about each progression of the story. It makes me feel I'm doing a justice that it can invoke these thoughts, and I want to keep doing that so you guys have a good story from start to finish.

Two things before we get started: I don't have a chart for how far we're into the story, so I couldn't tell you if this is the halfway point or not. There is sufficient amount of plot to wrap up (and a few to get started) that safe to say this story is not stopping anytime soon.

And as a small bonus, I will be updating my user profile later with art I have received for this story. Keep an eye out!

* * *

><p>"Artemis, I'm glitching, right? Something's wrong with the program and I'm still radiating." Her new brooch rested on her bed as the feline inspected it. A circular center with five pointed tips to form a star, opened to reveal her jewel and the woven gold patterning around it. This was a transformation he, to be honest, was never sure if he'd see come to pass. The 'eternal' senshi had been the ultimate assimilation of the senshi: completely identical uniforms except for the color, with Usagi's standing out. Though Usagi many years ago had started alone with a brooch, the truth was that being able to use a brooch opposed to a wand was a high honor for a senshi. It meant, even if she would continue with teamwork, it solidified her as her own warrior and not under the wing of others, a reason why her outfit had altered radically from the traditional appearance. It was ascending to her heiress role as the Princess of Venus, much like the Princess of the Moon, it was a signifier of independence.<p>

Artemis shook his head softly, closing the brooch again with a front paw. "That's not possible. Right now, you're actually weaker than usual. All of the buildup of your excess energy finally pushed you through the last barrier you needed, so spiritually, you're weak. Certainly not in condition to go out fighting tonight." There was emphasis on that last line, as if Artemis had grown disapproving of her continuing to fight without her friends present. "Speaking of build-up, it's starting to look dangerous to me how many secrets you're keeping. Usagi doesn't know about the new youma threat, allying yourself with other vigilantes who would oppose Crystal Tokyo, and you have fallen into something that your duties don't permit- as well as several other things. Lies don't stack well, Minako."

"No way, no way, no _way_. I am not coming clean with Usagi until she has her child. Can you imagine how worried she'd become hearing we'd been fighting all alone without her, or how she'd feel knowing there's nothing she can do to help? Or what if she dares try to help when she knows it's a bad idea? Usagi doesn't need more stress than she already has." Both palms on her face, she took a deep breath as if she needed it badly. "I couldn't even come clean to her about liking someone. I don't want to put her in the situation where she'll have to tell me- that…"

That she was not permitted to love someone under the rule that would come to pass. She could imagine Usagi's face- at first pleased, happy that Minako had broken what she considered a curse, that slight pause where her expression froze on 'blankly happy, then faltered, shoving out words that didn't feel right to the moon princess, such as reminding Minako that they faced a grave responsibility in the future and she was unsure of what she could allow at this point, even when everything inside of Usagi screamed at her to tell Minako to leave the team behind and chase the only dream she had. Even then, Minako couldn't imagine Usagi saying something like 'You'll have to break it off, give it up' without starting to cry because she wanted the _best_ for her best friends.

And yet she had to force them into a seat of power to protect all of humanity. Minako didn't know if she could do it, had she actually been the Moon Princess. No matter what law dictated her future, she would have a hard time looking every single one of her friends in the eye and tell them that they needed to give up their dreams for the sake of her own throne, to protect humanity. She could imagine the nauseous jealousy that those who had found love, the same feeling rolling inside her body, that she would be protecting their future _with someone else_, and the honest truth was even though she accepted it as the greater good, she would watch the lifetimes others spent that she would never be permitted, and the only vague reminder that she was a human being and not just the Princess of Venus was that painful and very human jealousy.

Something was climbing up the bars of her balcony, a dangerous feat to accomplish on such a rainy morning. She slid the glass open to help Haruka up, who usually looked a lot more calm and collected- this time she was shifting her eyes around the area. Minako could see the branches of her tree she'd leapt from in plain clothing just to reach her balcony. Apparently that was easier than the idea of bugging Minako's mother into letting her in- being an androgynous stranger asking to speak with her daughter alone and all. Haruka made no moves to come inside, despite the pattering of raindrops.

"Now's your chance to prove you're a decent leader of the inners. We need to have a serious talk."

* * *

><p>Minako had listened intently, nodding whenever Haruka asked her to snap to attention, as if she thought she was dozing off. It wasn't that, it was just a lot of information to absorb. The world had started mostly the same way. It was the point after Galaxia had been defeated and the happily ever after was supposed to come that most timelines branched- some sooner than others. So Crystal Tokyo hadn't happened in most worlds- wasn't that something to be happy for?<p>

"Hasn't a burden been lifted from us, then?" She asked. "We aren't obligated to create Crystal Tokyo, we don't have to-"

Haruka sighed. "We still don't know what the catalyst is to provoke Serenity's rise to the throne. For all we know, we haven't even located or stopped it yet. Pluto seemed to imply that the rise to the throne was proactive and not a necessary choice, but since all timelines are different, we can't honestly know that for sure. I know you haven't been thinking Usagi merely steps up to a political conference and announces she will become the queen of the supernatural. Something probably happened in the Alpha and Beta timelines that made it so that she had to and was able to without opposition. That's the more frightening half."

"… because for the world to accept a global leader, they must do something fairly impressive to adore them on a deity-like level. But Crystal Tokyo doesn't always come to pass, which means that catalyst doesn't always happen either." Minako rubbed her forehead with a sigh. She wasn't great at temporal science. "So the objective isn't just killing all the monsters patrolling the streets, but finding and stopping the catalyst and hopefully prevent Crystal Tokyo from being a necessary thing?"

A light shrug from the other senshi. "Crystal Tokyo is not an evil concept, it's just an intimidating one. Yes, it would be nice to stave it off long enough that we can find unity with fellow world-saving vigilantes. There might come a time where, regardless of whatever happens, Serenity's rule or at least her input will be necessary. Prepping for it not to happen is just as dangerous as if not moreso than prepping for it to happen. Whatever happens, I back the princess. But for now, our course is uncharted and our compass has abandoned us in the guise of a gift. Perhaps making our own future is going to be a gift… perhaps the utopia we've thought would come to pass didn't always make us as happy as our two time travelers would have us believe. I know Usagi would rather smash her crown than make life a depressing walk of guardianship for all of her friends."

"… I know. So that's why we make sure she doesn't see anything else, for her own wellbeing. It's not an insult to her intelligence, it's sacrificing for the sake of others. She wouldn't deny our loyalty if we offered it, and all of us would offer it without a second thought."

She gently pat Minako's shoulder before moving to climb down the balcony again to get to her motorcycle. "Keep on keeping on. Don't doubt your judgment and don't tip the scale one way or another. Just focus on what we do best, saving the day."

Rainwater splashed the sidewalk as she sped off, leaving Minako to think on her own.

"Artemis," She began. "I'm starting to think being in love is lower on the list than I previously thought."

"Promise me something." The cat had not left her room, merely stood in the doorway. "If you won't tell Usagi, at least tell Mamoru. He knows her better than anyone else- and above anyone else, he'll be able to tell you whether Usagi will be able to take the news about what Pluto has told us, and what you are going through yourself."

Minako's eyes were soft, melancholy. "There's no way she would be able to take the news about Chibiusa well, before she knew she was going to have a child or after they're born. I don't want to break my queen."

"She can't subsist on lies and indirect reassurance forever."

Minako clipped the brooch to her clothing. She really did look like her own senshi.

"I know."

* * *

><p>The metal was the first notable thing. Above her gloves were carved, iron gauntlets that covered her from her elbow to her knuckles. Her ribbons, front and back, had been shortened, leaving more of the white leotard visible than usual. Her shoes, steel-toed, her ponytail tied with green baubles and pink ribbons, her sleeves now in the cut patterns of oak leaves. Two different colored ruffles to her skirt, and beneath them, shorts. Her outfit had been redesigned for a brawler. The previously long ribbons were now a more reasonable size because of how easily they could be grabbed. The shorts helped with modesty and mobility. She tapped her fists together- the metal gauntlets conducting a string of electricity between them.<p>

"… _woah._"

Yusuke was already up, jumping a little bit to get the blood pumping. "Come on, I'll be your test run. Show me how those gloves work."

She already had an idea. Metal was an electric conductor, and she was a fighter. With every hit, she could charge it up with a heavy dosage of electricity. Makoto was fairly pleased to know it would be very, very difficult to kill him- it meant no holding back on the first hit, charged straight into his stomach with the electric current that felt like it was running along her veins like copper wire. He wheezed, knocked back several steps, holding his gut. The look on his face betrayed he had not anticipated that to hurt nearly as much as it did. He held up a palm to stop her, then regained his stance.

"Again."

They sparred on the riverfront- him blocking and occasionally allowing for a hit. The metal conductors in her shoes and hands were far superior to any of the 'magic spells' that he dubbed the senshi were used to, with a lot of flipping around and intangible sparkles. One, it hurt more, and two, with her fighting style, up close and personal was going to put her enemy down faster. After a few sparring matches, he told her to slow down to a stop. She raised an eyebrow.

"I'm doing good, though-"

"Your hit has gotten harder, but you're definitely weaker right now, I can tell. You did just do a massive run all night, and balance is kind of a big thing. The more you output the weaker you get, and right now you need to rest." As thick skulled as he was, he wasn't above doling out hypocritical lessons he had learned but never took to heart to others; but right now, when there was no actual enemy, there was no reason to keep sparring. "You need to go home, okay? No cleaning or tea or cooking, just sleep."

She'd reverted into her old clothes and snapped the brooch on her collar like a badge of honor. "Alright, alright- no need to take up babysitting me. That's my job for everyone else."

He let out a 'tche!' and followed her up the hill. It was going to be a long walk back to her apartment.

* * *

><p>She was quick to dive into bed. He didn't know how she had managed to put together a western style bed in her bedroom as opposed to a futon, but he could also imagine her hauling the pieces up to her apartment one by one and assembling them without needing much assistance. She had an absurdly puffy comforter that seemed made for all seasons- a cotton downy-feathered comforter that kept someone warm and was light enough to keep them cool. Of course, he'd only seen it once when he opened her door to check on her, make sure she was actually sleeping for real, before lazing about in her apartment.<p>

He tried watching television, but instinctively turned it off the moment an airplane commercial came on, as if the subject was taboo in the household. Her parents died in a plane crash. What a sick way for the world to prep her for becoming a senshi. Just remove family ties as needed. The others had parents, but he had to wonder how close they were to them what with reincarnation being a topic and all. Did the moon princess feel like her mom was really her mom when she had a past life mom too? What the hell was going to happen after Crystal Tokyo, anyway? Were their old friends and family going to fall to the wayside for being magical princesses?

Yusuke considered that an insult to all of them, but to Makoto the most. Forget your family, you're a galactic princess. There were very few pictures of her childhood in the album; whoever she grew up with apparently wasn't fond of snapping pictures for precious memories. There were school photos and that was it. He noticed a set of a few where instead of a peachy smile, she was giving the camera a dangerous stare.

_That was probably the phase where she was used to everyone calling her a punk…_ He thought. Then the album sprawled with colorful photos of her four best friends, with hasty notes written, all referring to them by their real names, not a single implication in the book that they were a group of superheroes. She changed massively in big leaps, and it didn't feel too foreign to him. He was strictly school photos and fights until his life was given meaning by having it taken away the first time and he collected a colorful group of new friends. It didn't sink in that this book was so well loved, so worn until he realized he was flipping pages for comparisons from the old Makoto to the new. She must've felt it was important to load up on memories before they all changed again.

… he closed the book and leaned back. Yusuke knew she didn't want pity and she didn't need it for what were her choices, but looking through the book made him _sad_. He could have a similar scrapbook, but before the wakeup call from Keiko and helping the Senshi, there was nothing stopping him from going on with his life, for the 'good memories' to ever have a set stopping point, and Makoto had known there would be one for a long time now. It was a looming sadness, and a wonder none of them had fallen into depression because of it. Perhaps because they relied on each other so heavily? Misery loves company. At the same time, he mentally urged them to be selfish.

_You aren't a set._

_You aren't four people with a ruler making up one hive mind._

_You're all different._

_You don't have to make sure your actions and beliefs line up with everyone else's._

_What would that make you?_

He tried getting comfortable for sleep on the couch, drawing the curtains closed and kicking off his shoes, but it kept him awake until he fell asleep and entered the wakefulness of a dream. Reality was always contorted in dreams, so when he saw Crystal Tokyo, he saw every building he knew literally made out of crystal. Though the passerby could walk perfectly, he kept sliding around on the perfectly smooth glass sidewalk, struggling to get to the palace. Everyone he spoke to only had one thing to say, and when prodded again for more information, repeated it, like a video game NPC. It was creepy- they were 'perfect people'. Eventually, walking and running became so difficult without falling that the dream self of his began an animalistic crawl. It wasn't as if anyone surrounding him cared. They stood around in glass-enchanted shoes and clothes and had mile long stares into the distance, with zero reaction to what was around them.

When he finally made it up the steps, he started shouting to those inside, his yells echoing in the crystal halls. No guards came for him. No one reacted to him, screaming, demanding to know if this was the human paradise they wanted to create, when every single person in the world was as emotionally receptive as a _rock_. He would have been less unsettled if someone had come and challenged him, or came to help him, or did _anything_ aside from let his voice be unheard. Though he was a maniac running rampant in a castle, no one paid him any attention. It really was like a video game, in a section where the NPCs didn't respond. He could smash things and lift them and break them and no one would do a single thing. No one would _react_.

He woke up with empty stomach pain or whatever it was- the feeling that acid had settled and his mouth was dry and he'd feel better if he at least got some water in there, something, but he'd woken up to two things. The sunset was visible through the closed curtains, and Makoto was a few inches away from his face.

She drew back immediately, looking in a different direction. "You were saying strange things in your sleep. I was wondering if it was best to wake you or leave you alone, but you sounded so- I don't know, upset. Was it a nightmare?"

He weighed her words heavily before answering, as his unnerved feelings from the dream itself settled into him again upon memory.

"A hell of one."


	9. The World's Most Powerful Element

If Rei entered a meditative state, the world was lost to her.

If she could hear a drop of water fall all the way across from the side of the temple, she knew she was bordering on peace, but she could not fully attain it. Frustration was starting to build within her, but she kept growing nervous. The grounds didn't need sweeping or any upkeep, so there was no busywork to distract herself with. The archer was starting to wish she had taken a college class just for the distraction it would provide, but chose to dress nicely and browse the shops. Maybe get something to eat, or pick out something hiding in plain sight. Her transformation had startled her- Her fuku had become a body suit- while she kept her red heels, her legs were now clad in black fabric, and her gloves went much further up her arms than usual. Her skirt had become more form fitting, with a slit up the side as opposed to the ruffles she had always had. Her ribbons remained long and thin, and the one on her chest, cut into arrow shapes. The more prominent difference had been the braid of her hair that began at her shoulders, but the more she analyzed every change, the more she realized it was for the practicality of her situation. She wielded _fire, _and she had long hair, bare legs, and fluffy fabric that could easily catch aflame, including her extremely long hair. The miniskirt in comparison to the fuku skirt gave her mobility, and the covering of her legs and arms protected her from the very flames she wielded. The braid had made it so her hair didn't fluff out behind her back and get caught up in the fire.

After all, in becoming their final form, their element was no longer controlled with attack names, but directly through channeling. So she channeled fire openly, as opposed to mandalas or arrows, and her new clothing equipped her to be safer in doing so. She considered cutting her hair to a short length like Ami's, but after a few moments of staring at the mirror with the flat end of a blade underneath her hair, she didn't have the will to do so. She would merely see how her fire effected her from here on out. Her skin prickled a bit when a man passed her on the park bench- she recognized him from the very few times she met him. Red hair, green eyes. The 'sweet youma' that didn't deserve her trust.

"Excuse me… Miss Rei?" He asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Is there something you need?" She wasn't interested in the boys Makoto and Minako had decided to be so enamored with, much less take up a 'pair the spares' mentality in flirting with either one of them. They were demons, barring one. They were just a different breed of the same thing she disliked. Her attitude was completely unwelcoming, but he kept at it.

"Yes, actually, I need to pass on a message to you…" He seemed uncomfortable. "You and Miss Ami seemed like the easiest to approach with this information. In the Demon World, and the underworld, there is starting to be talk of Serenity's rise- is that the name of your princess?"

Rei stood at attention. No one had ever told them Usagi's name beyond 'Sailor Moon', to her knowledge, unless Makoto or Minako slipped. "Yes, it is- what about them? What are they doing, talking about her? There's nothing beyond talk between her friends that's-"

He nodded. "And yet, it is still brewing trouble, the idea of a miracle crystal washing over the earth and making it uninhabitable for the demons you aren't even presently fighting. I wanted to warn you… even if four people don't oppose you, you must watch after your princess. I don't listen to their plans- you will have to confront Hiei for information. He's the one who has been spending more time down there than I have."

The most bristling of the four men being confronted by the most unabashedly blunt of the four inners. Nonetheless, Rei nodded. "This isn't information you had to pass onto us. Thank you."

Kurama was surprised at the gratitude. "You're welcome… I just don't see the need in hiding things, especially when they could lead to chaos. Unfortunately, this is a bad time for everyone… but information shouldn't be hidden."

"Will we have a few months?"

"… I can't predict demons, but I will keep my ear close to the wall. I know your interests are in your princess, and that you must buy her as much time as possible." He turned to leave. "But if I may make a suggestion…"

Rei's stare bore into the back of his head as he continued. "You _must_ prepare her for the worst. There is nothing you can predict right now… it is in your best interests to tell her. You may not have that much time…"

It was all the information he had to deliver, and all Rei needed to know. He let himself vanish into the crowd, and let the reason she could not properly meditate sink into the back of her mind. There was still too much of a gap that anything could slip in and no one could prepare for, and they might need Usagi, and she frowned. She could hear Makoto and Minako's denial right upon telling them that Usagi needed to know- they were not traitorous, but fearful, and too assured that they could handle what went wrong with the two allies they had. Perhaps this was a topic to bring up with Ami, instead.

* * *

><p>"You should put this into your noodles at your ramen stand, Yusuke. This is a blend of spices I make for my own noodles, it'll make them taste a lot better without making them too spicy or too bland. It's a mix of dried tomato flakes and-"<p>

"Got it." He took the small glass spice bottle. "Pour it in at boiling point?"

"That's right. Make sure only half a teaspoon in chicken, and a full teaspoon in beef broth. It'll be overpowering in the chicken if you add any more than that." She'd been showing him cooking tips that had made his small ramen stand a midnight hot spot, stealing customers from the other all-night food spots and filling every stool at his booth. She showed him how to make homemade noodles easily, rolled with spices, how to chop bullion cubes to get the most flavor, what toppings would be best for certain flavors. He'd named a few of his new bowls after her, made a menu called the Jupiter selection (and sold some of her baked bread rolls and other things under the Venus selection). He didn't think he could line his pockets so easily from such a deadbeat job, but if the few touches she made to the stand had people lining up, he wouldn't complain.

She took a seat after one of his last patrons left. "I'll take a Ganymede." A beef bowl with fresh herbs, one that she had liked because it had his own special input without her guiding the way. He poured a bowl and pushed it towards her with one of her own rolls. It was nice for once, eating what he cooked instead of the usual other way around. "Make a lot of money tonight?" She split her chopsticks and began eating. She was pretty dainty whenever he had his eyes on her, but piled up the noodles when he wasn't looking.

"Yeah, I can't count how many patrons I've had since I changed my recipe. I've had to up my stock and everything-" He looked at her, realizing she was stirring the noodles in the broth. "What, need a refill?"

"Your friend talked to Rei. Redhead." He paused for a moment, before waiting to clear our his customers so it would only be him and her left in the stall. "Word is spreading down there about Serenity. You know, with your people? Kurama thought it was enough of an issue to bring up to her."

He started hauling things for cleaning. "So you think some scum is going to crawl up if she reveals herself sometime soon?"

"Or get rid of her before she has the chance to reveal. You know, worldwide utopia doesn't exactly give them a lot of leg room." Makoto bit into the succulent cut of beef she had been saving to the side. "I'm not saying that like it's offensive, I mean…"

"No, I've been rolling with people down there long enough for me to know. They hear about a twin tail princess who's gonna coat the world with love and goodness and a complete lock-out, there's going to be a total uprising." He swore, but it was drowned out by the sound of him shoving pots up back to their proper shelving. "Even the good people down there wouldn't want that." He paused. "I really wanted to avoid telling you, but it's not like they don't know about the senshi. You guys have a reputation for 'kill demons on sight'. Anyone who comes waltzing up is automatically worse than a second class citizen."

And the Senshi couldn't change that about themselves, no matter what. They could not alter what they perceived as a threat to humanity, that had been one time and time again. "We can't change how we view certain things, I'm sorry…" She admitted quietly. Yusuke studied her face- it was a mix of guilt, resolve, and confusion. She understood the threat, but knew she couldn't allow legroom for certain demons to prove her wrong, and that would be a choice of theirs as a team. And yet, with more truths coming out about the world, what was there to say about people she barely knew anything about? The world was supposed to be utopia, so there was no room for…

_Those born under different skies, different rules. Those who were inherently enemies by nature, but several who were not. It felt like a social issue, all of a sudden. What and who did the future allow for?_

"I'm sorry. I'm not the one with all the answers. Right now, it's just a waiting game until Usagi has her kid… will you come out and hunt with us tonight? We're nearing the end of the line."

Yusuke hung up his apron, and opened the drawer with his hood and mask. "Yeah. Don't stress yourself out, alright? You're doing what you can as it happens."

She stepped out from underneath his stall, and when he emerged, she was fully dressed already. "Pretty useful when you don't have to spin around for fifteen seconds. I've been practicing to make it instant."

He nodded- "Well, what are we waiting for?"

She tapped her fists together. "Not for anything to get worse."

* * *

><p>Kuwabara knew Minako well enough to know where she hid when she was conflicted. The cold of November shook through the trees as he pulled his coat up around his head- his disguise hoodie forbidden, as it was an icon of the men who fought alongside the senshi. He didn't really like being popular… hearing people talk at his college class (Shizuru would have given him hell if he'd never gone) about it made his skin crawl just a small bit, like he was an actor lying just by not saying a single thing. How did the girls manage this just in high school?<p>

He caught sight of her through the vines, and wove through the graveyard to meet her at Ace's grave. She'd been sitting a long time by the scattered ash of many burned sticks of incense. Her kanzashi was still worn, even if it was out of season, out of style, out of anything, she'd taken dedicatedly good care of it and always worn it. Why? She hadn't stopped even after she ran away from him and refused to explain. She said later that she had a rush of memories from her last transformation- but he knew it was an act.

Because he'd seen the actress, who dodged the reason she bought things for senshi work with flawless woven words, with a perfectly truthful, lying face. He could perceive that much about her. She glanced up, and he took it as a cue to sit down next to her.

"I don't want you to act weird around me," He began. "I mean, it's really starting to confuse me. At first you were all over me, and then you mellowed out, and then I said I'd be a knight for you… and now you're distracted and dodging things." She seemed to curl up into herself on that last part. "Are you hiding stuff? You should tell me, you know, I'm not an idiot- I know what Urameshi says about me, but I'm not-"

His voice was cut off when she grabbed both sides of his shirt and buried her head in. She wasn't crying, she just could not give him any angle to look at her face. "I need to tell my pregnant queen that the threat is rising. I need to tell her that there was ever a threat to begin with, and now there is a new one that is spreading on the underside of the world. I need to tell her things are getting dangerous, and for well over a year now, we have kept that a secret from her. We did it for her. And I promised my team _I would tell her._ And what's more, I need to tell my queen that I have broken a law. My pride and honor, I know I said a long time ago that I didn't need anyone except my girls, that I accepted my curse. I'm not a weak woman. I'm not weak for _feeling._ But I know it's a conflict, and I know… I have to hurt her…"

"Hurt her? Minako, what did you do?"

What he didn't know made her sit back, and he'd never seen her face in so much pain. "I'm not saying this in front of a grave." The one that started her curse at all. She stood, and so did he. She walked to the wheat fields that had long forgotten to be cut, and he followed.

"I've made you an important part of my life, is what I did. And she wouldn't oppose a knight."

She expected a daft expression when she looked at him, as cruel as the words sounded in her head, but there was faint realization and understanding. He had stopped paying Yukina regular visits months ago, and opted to do the occasional visit out of friendship… he wasn't so eager to call her his princess anymore or fawn over her, because it felt strange. It was a routine he could do, but it felt like Minako's acting, and like how she behaved when they first met. It felt wrong and forced on someone who didn't understand without the right words. Just like the passage of time, his feelings had changed and shifted, though he hadn't stopped caring, love had hit a peak and lost momentum, and instead, if he imagined a truly beautiful person, he saw the back of the Princess of Venus.

Strong. Funny. Clever. Brazen. Rude. Feminine and simultaneously as outrageous as many of the guys he knew. Excitable, with the love of the world, herself, and her friends. And a hero. She redefined what a princess was in his eyes. Instead of a beautiful girl who shed tears in the form of jewels, a girl whose tears were rare as jewels to begin with.

So he put a hand on her cheek, thumb beneath her eye, ready to wipe any away, and slowly, they came.

"Why do you have to get it…" She sniffed. It wasn't glamorously crying in the movies, it was breaking down into a bawl. "Why do you have to get me, and why do you have to stay by me? Why didn't I annoy you away from me, why didn't I stick to my guns that I only needed just so many people? Why couldn't I have stayed that shallow me that only chased people to fly away before I could make anything happen?" She started breathing in hiccuping gasps as the tears kept being brushed away. "Damn it, why do I have to love you?"

At that, he gave way to let Minako cry on his shoulder. "I hate it! I don't hate you, but I hate this, because I have to give it up! Reject me, reject me right now! So I can go! So we don't have to do-" Her sentence dissolved into tears as she punched at his chest with a closed fist.

"Knights don't lie." His hands- calloused and oh so different from the manicured, bishounen idols she'd previously admired rested on the back of her neck in an embrace. "F'you gotta tell the truth, then let the truth do what it's gotta. I'm never gonna reject my princess, got it? I'm a man've my word!"

That probably hurt the most.

"I know you are…" She sank with him to kneel in the grass, as she merely leaned against him. "That's why."

* * *

><p>Born January 30th. A boy. Black hair, Usagi's blue eyes. His formal name would be 'Seiya Small Prince Endymion' or Chiba Seiya, the princess supposed, named for the old friend of Usagi's that was now galaxies away, a name Mamoru obliged to for how much stability, how much Seiya had given in the last greatest trial Usagi had gone through. In February, all Usagi knew was that she was lost in some sort of trance, knowing this child was not, could not be Chibiusa in any form. She thought her blood would make for a daughter no matter what, as some sort of Lunarian law, but she was more human than she guessed. Even wishing on a crystal of miracles could not change her destiny throughout the pregnancy, and she reasoned her son was beautiful, and looked like his father. He had a wonderful laugh and she adored him with all her heart.<p>

But she was lost, and the only thing that seemed to bring her out of it was looking into her son's eyes, not red, never red, and play with him. He was perfect, and because he wasn't Chibiusa wasn't going to change that to her. Haruka had implied to her that Pluto had left them, and that, the Uranus senshi struggled with, to take everything that came with time and to prepare. The senshi, every single one, had gathered in the living room of the Chiba household, waiting while Minako stood outside with her knight. She told him not to come in. It was time for the lies to finally come undone. The uprising was stunted, the demons, for now, quiet, and the child was born. It was time to let everything go, and let everything fall through, and every senshi looked towards her as she came in, knowing what it was time for.

"I need to speak with Usagi alone." The Moon Princess nodded, and passed her son to her husband before moving into the bedroom.

Usagi sat down as Minako stood in front of her, waiting for the conversation to begin.

"There have been youma for well over a year," She said finally. "A large amount. We suspected it was to interrupt your rise to the throne, and since you were so stressed with teaching yourself to prepare for queen hood, we decided not to tell you, but I took on the burden of the secret all my own. If you must blame someone out of all of us, it is me. I took on leadership for this task."

"I know," Usagi said quietly.

"What? You knew?"

"Luna kept me informed." She responded. "Eventually, she felt too guilty hiding it from me, but she said… that since you were all reaching a level that was unprecedented or predicted, that you use it to prepare to be my guardians… as queens. I was worried, but she kept me updated, and said you were doing wonderfully. I- I know you did it for me, Minako, I know it had to hurt to have lied. But please… tell me everything."

Minako froze in her position. "There's so many…"

"I'm ready."

Trembling, Minako knelt on one knee in front of her, head bowed, as she would have to royalty in the Silver Millennium, and as she would in Crystal Tokyo. "That's not all. We have informants on the other side of the world, the netherworld, the demon world, telling us there would be a global uprising if a worldwide throne is sought with the silver crystal at the heart of it, as it would demote even the non-aggressive demons to a pitiful lower-class citizen stance, if we even… allow ourselves to keep them alive." She choked on that word, but kept going. "This is the most dangerous threat of all. It won't come in waves, but in one entire shockwave of aggressors. And they don't want to rebel out of evil, they want to rebel for their equality. We've been researching all over the world for other vigilantes, and the more we learn, the more we know of the boundless opposition. Furthermore, Pluto has revealed herself as a Timeline Keeper. Usagi- No, Neo Queen Serenity…"

Minako looked up. "Chibiusa was from the future of another timeline. She grew up in a time where we had never evolved through our battles- because you cannot alter time, and the action of time travel must occur before the altercation of the past. Meaning in Chibiusa's real past, You… never grew up knowing her at all. By branching this timeline with hers, she saved her Crystal Tokyo, and kept coming back under the permission of Neo-Queen Serenity, who knew the truth at that point in time. We don't know what provokes your rise to the throne, or what even makes it successful. Pluto says leaving us without a compass is a blessing… and… last of all, I have failed my duties to you before the kingdom has already risen. I have…" She swallowed. "Fallen in love. However, as your… guardian, I know I cannot maintain this relationship with my duty to you- so at your word, I will end it. But you must know the truth, and that is all I have hidden, and all of my guilt to you. If I have betrayed you by being silent… I- I don't even know if anything in the world could make it up to you."

Usagi's expression had gone from the depressed blank upon hearing everything Minako had to say to rising emotion. Her teeth had begun to chatter, her eyes narrowed. Minako braced for it- the full fury of Neo-Queen Serenity, a slap, something, but it seemed the moment Usagi knew she was staring at Minako, she looked away abruptly. Her rage was inward.

"The last thing- the last thing Chibiusa said to me, was 'see you in the 30th Century'. It wouldn't be with my son. It would be as a Queen who chose to send her daughter to the past… a thousand years to change my identity, but do you know what I think?"

The only hit Minako received was a bump to the bottom of her chin as Usagi stood up and started to pace. "I prepared for the past few years to _imprison_ my best friends in their roles. I distanced myself from you in an effort to make it easier for all of you- to _hate me_ because I knew you would! I knew I was stealing everything from you for reasons I didn't understand! And now, I understand. I understand that it was _Neo Queen Serenity_'s daughter who was my _ally _and one of my dearest friends, and that she parted from my life forever. My son _will not_ suffer from the pain of being considered a mistake growing up." Her voice rose in octaves. "My name is Chiba Usagi! It's the name of a commoner! It's not holy and my mother and father, Kenji and Ikuko gave it to me, and Mamoru gave me his family name, and I'm proud of both! I have a little brother who I'm proud of too, and friends who don't need to have magical crystals inside them to be _special!_"

Usagi ripped away her brooch and threw it across the room, hitting the wall with a heavy crack. It was the wall that split, not the holy artifact itself. "Do you know what I think, Minako? _I hate her! I hate Neo-Queen Serenity and everything she has set for me to become!_ I'm! Not! Royalty! Anymore! I'm fine being Sailor Moon, a hero with you! With all my friends! I won't put on a dress and call myself better than you! I refuse!" She clutched Minako's shoulders and shook her violently, the tears of anger and sadness finally spilling down her face.

"I want you to stay in love! I want Ami to save lives! I want Makoto to have a family! I want Rei to make amends with hers! I want Hotaru to grow up with her mothers and have a happy life, and I want Haruka and Michiru to lead a life as they so choose, because they've found their happiness! If Pluto has left the decision in my hands, then I choose to abandon my royalty, to abdicate the throne! The past life I had, the mother I had, I know she wanted the best for me, but she was Princess Serenity's mother. I'm not Princess or Neo Queen Serenity anymore…" Usagi's legs were starting to give way, her tears spilling onto Minako's shirt as the two fell to the ground, kneeling with her. The senshi and Mamoru had overheard from the other room, had all filed in to listen.

"I'm Usagi… and I'm not vain enough to think I need a title to protect the world." She sniffed- let her tears be absorbed into the fabric. "I don't need a castle. I just need all of you… my best friends in the entire world… to share my happiness as long as we live. Whatever comes next, I don't need to be Serenity to face it."

She let the sobs continue, mixed from her mourning for Chibiusa, her anger for Serenity, and her resolve for the future. When she finally pulled away, she saw that every single person had come into the room, and, with the exception of Mamoru, had knelt in the same knight's pose, facing her. It was Rei who lifted her head, and finally spoke.

"This endless compassion you've just shown us all is why we would follow you to the ends of the Earth, Usagi, and we still will. If you deny royalty, then we'll continue to serve you as a leader of heroes…" Though there was no tremor in her voice, a single drop ran down her cheek. "And stay beside you forever as our dearest friend."

Not a moment later, every single girl rushed towards her, to embrace Usagi. Not Serenity, their princess or their queen. Their hero, their leader, and most simply, their friend.

* * *

><p>What an emotional update! Jeez.<p>

But certainly not the climax of the story. Please tell me what you think! :)


	10. One Big World in One Small Jewel

Usagi slumped against the wall after finally leaving the world of demons to the fresh air of Tokyo. She went in for diplomacy; but it was an act they already had in play. They were monitoring the demons entering and leaving, and were quick to accuse her- to remind her that she was not, and never was to use the crystal to 'purify' the innocents. It gave her a monumental headache. Yes, they were innocent, and yes, they were born differently, and yes, she and all her friends grew up killing them. "Healing" was only a word for so long and no one at the meeting recognized it. For the first time, Usagi felt the sensation of being the villain in a room of people victimized by the power she held over them in the form of her crystal, and it made her despair. Made her sick. She didn't want that kind of fear.

But Yusuke was quick to tell her that change and opposition is going to be the center stage. You can't get rid of the crystal, you can only cross your heart you won't use it… and cross your heart you won't trip over jurisdiction if someone goes rogue, because that's _his _job. She looked up at him with pouting eyes far too young for her; instead of the Neo Queen's gown, she was in a pressed white, official looking suit-and-skirt lined with blue silk, pinned with a moon symbol on the lapel. She looked businesslike and official.

"I finally have the chance to see what it's like on the other side of the fence; to know what it's been like to be my enemy." Usagi held her purse in front of her. "And I don't know why I expected a welcoming group instead of the wariness they all had towards me… I've never felt like a villain."

"If you fight, you're always the villain to someone. Didn't anyone teach you that?"

"… well, no, obviously not." Usagi responded, "If I just told you I never felt like-"

Her voice trailed off as he waved his hand, feeling a small headache come along and nag at him. "I told you I'd get you there and get you home. Bodyguard you and all that. I have a few prior engagements to attend to, so, Queen-"

"Usagi-!"

He chuffed a laugh. "I call you that because it makes you puff your cheeks like you're still in grade school. Let's get you home."

* * *

><p>Makoto cracked an egg over a bowl of rice, set out breakfast for the boy coming over, hoping for good news. The longer she waited, the more time she spent making hot food. It stopped Yusuke in his tracks to stare at the feast laid out; but it felt typical. Makoto always overcooked. He tossed his jacked on a couch and picked up one of the bowls of rice. "Well, she sure as hell doesn't know how to barter with demons. I was hoping she'd have magical diplomat powers, but she just has magical niceness powers. Doesn't really keep her floating in their boardroom."<p>

The Jupiter Princess set the last plate of sunny-side up eggs on the table before parting her chopsticks. "So… did she do bad?"

"More like she got _spooked_. I told her they wouldn't be nice, she admitted they wouldn't be nice, and yet she walks out of there having stood her ground about as well as an earthquake. Demons… and the people representing them, would always be on the offensive regarding a magic purifying crystal that has creepy brainwash connotations-" At her glare, he amended; "To people like demons. It's like having a bomb that only works on one group of people. The real world would go insane."

Makoto nodded. "… Hey, so Kuwabara and Minako left today."

"-?!"

She folded an egg on a piece of toast and bit into it. "Leaving Japan for a month to network with other supernatural fighters. Ami turned up names all over the world, and they intend to hit the biggest with the hopes that the network will spread. And hopefully, there'll be some sort of consensus… the most and best we're hoping for is a united meeting of the leaders. That's what Minako is hunting for."

"So it's not a pre-honeymoon."

Eyes rolling, she sawed into a plate of pancakes. "After the big blowout with Usagi and the rest of us, Minako changed. Not for the worse, but she's definitely devoted to making Usagi's life easier, and Kuwabara seems content to go along with the ride…"

Why is it that they always seemed to bond over food? Probably because her cooking eased these topics between full mouths. "Kuwabara's pr' grateful to Usagi for not pullin' the whole 'sorry, forbidden' card. 'Cause Minako would'a let it go for loyalty and he would've had to deal and they're happy and… yeah."

"What's up?"

"Nothing's up, my mouth's full."

"That doesn't stop you from talking ever, spill it."

He stuck out his tongue, covered in food and she grimaced. "Okay, fine. Swallow, then talk."

"I wanna see a movie with you, okay." Stumbling out the words with all the elegance of rocks off a cliff, he averted his gaze and chewed on the toast. "I don't like disaster movies, but there's a good action one out, so…"

His words were obvious. They'd been bonding for a time and he finally wanted to consider the idea if they were just good friends or better. She was pitted with anxiety. Already? When they'd become such close friends? But in that anxiety was an odd sort of anticipation, bubbles and butterflies both in the stomach. She was still high-school minded, thinking that dates lead up to a hierarchy of relationship statuses and _could she really do that?_ She used to be devoted, a dreamer. Even with her feelings in mind, the idea of her dating was foreign.

"I… yeah, sure, if you want to do that."

But not unwelcome.

* * *

><p>Haruka sat on the edge of a bench when night fell, waiting for a friend to drop by.<p>

She took up a branch and started drawing again the tree that Setsuna first told her. The start to the finish, where two universes ended well, another diverted, and the rest became strange altercations with the addition of people from all over, everywhere, altering the fate of the world and the Senshi were swept away as easy as dirt. She shoved the branch down into the one marked Epsilon. It was a wonder how stark that line looked compared to the others; in other worlds, the privilege of saving mankind would be stripped from them in some way. In others, they'd fail, in some, they would win, but key differences would be made. Chibiusa was now as much of an old friend as Princess Kakyuu; meant to rule in another time, another space.

The scent of burning ash lead her to look up. Pluto's fuku was singed and ripped, but she had arrived, just as promised.

"Sigma is much more dangerous a place, but not riskier than Epsilon." She let her staff rest against the ground and looked as poised as possible, despite the danger she had just escaped from. Time was flexible. She could be out of one pocket and into another in the blink of an eye, and just as quick back. "The demons?"

"Scaring the princess." Haruka scratched her etchings away. "They know the waves we were hit with weren't under their command, but it's for that reason that we aren't trusted. If I was on their side, I would be thinking of ways to destroy the crystal."

"Why?"

The Uranus senshi glanced up.

"What do you mean, why?"

"Why would they seek to destroy the crystal?"

"To protect their own, obviously."

Pluto shook her head. "No… even as Venus and her Charge travel and attempt to gain allies, learning of a crystal with the ultimate power of healing and purification is going to lead to fear. The jewel invites war no matter how long it exists, no matter what decision Usagi makes with it. Let me tell you a story."

From the folds of her sailor collar, Pluto took a rectangular-shaped compact not unlike Mercury's and opened it, kneeling before Haruka on the bench. "I record every important memory, every altercation in time… that I come across, in failed timelines."

Usagi appeared on the image, though her hair had long gone silver and her crystal was no longer hidden within a brooch, but instead took the place of her brooch, she was dressed once more in the red-and-blue classic outfit she started in. She looked empty-eyed, distant, dusty, and completely out of place with the backdrop being machinery, mechanical bodies and grounds that eroded the earth and took away all that was once green into some sort of space colonial-looking base. It took a moment for it to sink into Haruka, that there was nothing else Usagi could _do _but watch as the world changed without her power, her input. She refused to give up her heroism, noted to be spotted saving a few lives in war-devoured countries, and clips of the video recounted that she was a parody of the old Japan; a hero that used to run around in red and blue… that she was a mockery trying to play pretend. That the world was no longer governed by fairytales. It was by war, by building the colonies, and not paying attention to pigtailed girls who honestly, should have died seven hundred years ago with her legend.

"… Usagi never stops fighting, even when the world doesn't need her. Yet chaos still comes to her, in her need to protect. In some memories, people blame it on the crystal. In others, like this one, some blame it on a depressing lack of sanity. The supernatural is crawling up, the good, the bad, and the unclassifiable, and they're all going to see Usagi and her magic, all-powerful crystal, and when the consensus comes in, do you want a weapon-"

"It is not a weapon!_ It's a miracle maker_!"

Pluto narrowed her eyes. "You have to let go of your perspective for this. To everyone and anyone else, the Silver Crystal is a weapon, and can be used for mass healing, but our definitions of healing change. Some consider the mass healing a mass brainwash that poisons demons and puts people in perpetual bliss, taking away the reality of humanity these people so treasure- and Haruka, can you blame them? You're the one of all of us who holds the most pessimism, even if you love our queen. If someone on the other side had a crystal like this and felt it was used with best intentions, wouldn't you want it destroyed?"

"I-" Haruka tried fighting the reasoning behind it. "I-… I want to say I would want to understand it for the best, first, but I would be threatened before considering trying to understand. That someone could have that much power over any group of people."

"Then you see the plight of the demons. They don't want to hate you, or fight you, but they are faced with a leader, cheerfully waving with a weapon of mass destruction embedded in her heart, that would always invite war. There are innocents afraid of our Princess, and for all our love for her, we need to make the other sides understand where we stand before giving them reason to fear us. We are monsters under the bed until proven otherwise; until proven heroes. This is what Venus' pilgrimage is all about. To find the seams of the supernatural, and bring them up, and bring us into an alliance. We never want the crystal to be used as a point of war ever again. I've seen too many timelines… too many universes where it ended up so badly. Haruka, please, be the patron of the stars you are assigned to be; rally your comrades and find the seams of the world Venus is searching for. You only have so long before contempt and hate breed fear of the senshi."

She left the pocket compact on her lap and stood, disappearing into the air. Haruka held it up to her face; the projection of the empty-eyed 'Sigma' Usagi made her heart quiver.

"What did I do in Sigma to make you beg me, Setsuna…?"

Haruka had asked the question to the air. The Time senshi was long gone.

* * *

><p>Rei stood, transformed in front of the shorter demon with spiked hair. Her skin bristled, her expression just as unkind as his.<p>

"On behalf of my princess, I'm here to negotiate."

"I don't give a damn. You aren't my problem anymore, and I have no business listening to an exterminator of my kind or the ruler who is no more or less the same."

In a swift movement, he grabbed her burning hand that had lashed out to strike him, and though it was singing his flesh, they stared down one another with a visceral glare. Rei would not and could not change the fact that she hated demons, and a stubborn, furious one was the one she had been assigned to _negotiate_ with. There had been no worse choosing for the two people who would have 'diplomatic discussions'. They hated one another, not only for who they were, but for _what_ they were. She could love Usagi all she wanted, but it didn't erase her contempt for demons. And he saw a brainwashed human girl with too much power handed to her, before his vice grip let go of her hand, leaving him with bubbling, burned flesh.

"Your negotiation could use _work_."

"I'm not here to impress you. I'm here for your kind's own good."

"Is that a threat, Mars?"

"It is if your kind dares take a step near my princess."

He'd shift in appearance when she drew fire out of the air.

The worst possible negotiators anyone could pick, and everyone had overlooked.

* * *

><p>THIS FIC AIN'T DEAD<p>

Life was just busy, is all.


	11. I Have Time On My Side

[Warning, the majority of this chapter takes place in an alternate timeline! It should be obvious where and why.]

* * *

><p>Pluto locked the door of Sigma behind her- never to be touched by her influence again. Beyond the door, her secret, ongoing series of doors, ticking away from the fated first Silver Millennium to the Cataclysm.<p>

Behind the locked door was an understanding, and a failure at beating the cataclysm; the notion itself was formless. It could be anything, so long as it was an event of chaos deigned to disrupt and neuter the power of the Silver Crystal and the rise of the Senshi as Earth's royals. If Pluto had said everything in Epsilon, the girls would be prepared… but that was against the rules. She was not allowed to exposition so openly and clearly what could happen, what would; her trust in Usagi had proven well for her numerous times, but had failed her many.

One glimpse into Sigma, one instance of the cataclysm. Something that could not be stopped.

The evolution of mankind without the aide of magic.

* * *

><p>"She hurt herself again," Sigma Neptune called, carrying a silver-haired Sailor Moon over her shoulder. The Princess or Queen or whoever she was supposed to be was rattled with bullets in her back, with faded eyes, shineless eyes. She never had a child; Mamoru was killed when a world war started and as the senshi tried to contain it, the power of mankind building itself up to protect itself grew bigger, wider. Now, space stations could be seen in the light polluted skies, and Mercury got to work on pulling the bullets, bit by bit, out of Usagi's back. The crystal was gone, had melted like ice into her body- damage like this was a knife into water; as soon as the object that displaced her flesh was removed, her skin healed immediately. Usagi muttered quietly that one of the armies had opened fire on innocents, and she stood in the doorway to take the brunt of the damage.<p>

Sailor Moon was now an urban legend among most people; the people on the war torn lands knew her, thought of her either as a god or a parody, wearing the uniform a girl in the 21st century donned once upon a time, saving lives. Now she was a dead-eyed woman on the battlefield. There was no magic or wands. There was delivering rations, there was helping people escape to safer regions, and then always back to the fight. She could not give up Earth. So beautiful, so dear to her heart, that she would subject herself to bloodshed every single day just to act in pacifism. The brooch that bore only crystal healed herself over, leaving her in the princess' royal gown destiny tied to her and wouldn't let go, no matter what practicalities lied with it. The small underground base where the senshi were either never transformed or always transformed was a safe haven- after all, it hadn't been found for hundreds of years. Mars, who had given up her flames (they only burned away the earth more, she had admitted quietly to Pluto), ushered in a guest for the Princess by gun. It was her night for watch duty, after all.

It was the only man who could bring a smile to Usagi's face anymore. She leaned up slowly, a weak smile on her face. "Hee-…"

"She took the brunt of a crossfire," Mars snapped to the brunette pilot. "No one was killed, though they're reporting now that she's the one dead- but like always, sooner or later, she turns up again… alive and well." She shouldered the gun and whispered to the slightly foreign visitor. "She needs you. I think there was one she wasn't able to save today."

None of the women questioned Usagi's unwavering safe feelings in the sensation of loving someone; it was no mud on Mamoru's memory. They were past the point that destiny could dictate a double-suicide would mean they'd reincarnate into a new, safer world. If the Princess' only joy came from loving and being loved by a young man fighting the same war as her, gave her hope that new days in the future might one day take away her terrible memories, and even with his short lifespan, if she could spend it with him, that's all Usagi cared about- aside from her friends. The only thing that brought her joy was living long enough to meet someone she'd call kindred. He picked her up by the shoulders and the crevice beneath her knees and carry her into another room; they needed to talk privately; about the war, and about if he ever tried that kind of candy she told him to (he did) and if he saw the view of the Earth from the moon (he did).

Mercury stood up from the control panel. Her once bright blue eyes seemed to dull with age, even though she looked as youthful as ever. Her hair fluffed up with the unkempt frizz that came with short hair. She was unsteady, and the moment she reached for another caffeine pill, Neptune had swiped them away disapprovingly. "You can't watch the monitors for another night, you've been up for sixty hours…" When Ami tried to complain back, Michiru forcefully turned her around, facing their small hallway leading to the bedrooms. "You have all briefed us on everything these machines do, enough for us over the past hundreds of years to know what we're doing. I'll take over your watch. Please, Ami, get some rest."

The truth was, Michiru didn't look all that well rested either. The obvious beauty of the team had her ponytail pulled back into a red knot. She seemed to be the only one to show any aging at all in the creases beneath her eyes- from being a team mom, to trying to control Haruka's tendencies for radical outbursts now that the war kept stressing her. Their banter had devolved recently into more argument than the witty retorts they made when they were much younger. They still loved one another, of course. Things were just hard. And as Michiru sat down to watch the global conflict monitor for the next eight hours, it felt more like a break than any sort of chore.

Mars sat down on the building's steps, sighing a lot more gratuitously than necessary, but enough that she figured she owed it to herself. Seven hundred years in miniskirts and high heels, and would you look at that? Nothing changed. The world went on, ignorant of the people who were strong enough to change it, because force and belief wasn't enough anymore. It was when they were teenagers. Never again, after.

* * *

><p>"Jupiter…"<p>

"Venus, what is it?" Jupiter was taking on an unusual job, charging the car battery of someone who needed it with her powers… of course, they weren't seeing her do it, but that was the point. Random acts of charity from someone who was an unlimited power source. Once the war had started, Venus viewed her powers as a joke. Love? LOVE. Love didn't win wars, and metal manipulation was no more effective or classy than bullets. In a crisis of feeling she was ever even capable in the first place, she'd unhanded her role as leader to Rei, and accompanied Jupiter as an extra hand to get anything done, things that didn't require superpowers, like getting people to safe places. She slumped against the broken brick wall, and the taller girl finally turned to look.

"I feel like, something went wrong somewhere. Not even because we knew the future, or that all of this happened, but I feel like something more meaningful, in spite of it all… I feel like we missed the train to get there." When Jupiter looked back to say they all felt like that, Venus protested, "It's more than just something better, it's something that would have _made it _better and meaningful. All of this could have happened, and we still would have had something… I just…"

"Venus, that's something you want. It's not something… that would have ever happened to us."

"Maybe."

"… Do you think heading back home and calling up the boy you like will help? You usually feel better."

Venus buried her head into her knees. "He's a pilot too, okay? I can't ask him to come down every single time I want him too. Usagi's boyfriend does that sort of thing, but I'm not-"

"You don't feel like you deserve happiness as much as Usagi, do you?"

"That's because I don't! I _failed_ her."

"The world failed everyone. You didn't… do anything, Minako."

Makoto drew her hand outside of the car, shaking off the electrical discharge. "This family will have transportation for a little while longer. We could go civilian and hit up a city and pretend for a while that everything is as fine as it always was."

"You're so dramatic."

"Look who's talking."

The two had become close friends through the things they altogether didn't have in common, in the same veins of a red oni and blue oni. One would think it'd be Mars as a counterpart, but the two were merely opposites on an emotional level, but not mental. Minako was to Makoto was water was to wood. Minako eroded things in her way over the passage of time to make herself a beaten path, and Makoto stayed rooted in place to her morals and herself no matter what happened. Their friendship was one of unwavering stability and passing change, and even though Minako looked like she aught be left alone for the walk back, she gratefully accepted leaning on Jupiter as they kept going. The taller woman couldn't help but think that Minako shoved her element away so easily, when it was obvious she still lived and breathed love… but perhaps that's why she hated it now so much, and by extension, a lot of herself.

* * *

><p>In an underground lab being cleaned out for supplies, a fuse was being lit.<p>

"… you've been doomed from the start."

Uranus froze, unsure if she heard Pluto right. Doomed? Doomed by what? "What are you talking about?"

"Sigma timeline has been a failure for 650 years. You all failed to stop the threat that would cause this uprising. Of course, so did every other magical team out for the protection of this world, but I'm not the one helping them… now, the Earth is destined to be a wasteland. The crystal is no longer sought by anyone outside of this galaxy, due to how worthless it's become." Pluto sighed, tapping the key to the ground. "It was worth watching you try your best, but now it's gone on too long. I'm sincerely sorry you have to waste another three hundred years until your lifespans clock out watching Earth die a little more, day by day. The power you all have… it's like a cigarette that's gone damp. All the materials are still present, but nothing will make it light successfully. Your hope, Usagi's hope, everyone we know, their hope is dead. No one cares about stopping anything anymore, only mitigating how bad it can be by small fractions… Watching this failure happen repeatedly is discouraging, but unpreventable in all but few cases."

"What the hell are you talking about?! Every time you've come here, you've talked in riddles as if all of us are too stupid to understand you- and I hear the words, but I don't understand your reasoning. Why you would say something like that?" It was so alarming to hear the one person who could view the world from the outside as if at a strategic standpoint say everything is gone. But Pluto said it as if it was the color of the sky or how warm it was outside.

"The fine print has been with you since the beginning. Senshi possess a capacity for infinite reincarnation, as long as their star seeds stay. Every single time we, as a group, die, you are all placed back at the start of the same story, in another timeline. You'll experience Silver Millennium, its fall, and the trials you went through when you were young all over again, but it always deviates once you reach adulthood. Sometimes it is this exact war. Sometimes, another group of heroes steal the spotlight from you and Crystal Tokyo never _needs _to be formed. Sometimes it's an ice age. Sometimes, it's everything you ever wished for. But my role, as the servant of Hades, is to make sure your string of death is never cut. I will always rewrite the timeline on your deaths, good, or bad. There is no successful end. There is only the repetition of the cycle."

"… if we die here…?"

"You'll be born into the life from your earliest memories, unable to stop any of the hardships that are fixed points within your timeline. You will re-experience all the joys from the life you remember as vividly as the first time they happened."

"We'll never rest?"

"… no."

Haruka threw a punch that connected with brute force against Pluto's cheek. "You were one of us! You were our friend! When did you become our worst enemy? Trapping us in the same life forever? …" Uranus' voice began to break down. "What could you possibly… possibly have to gain from repeating every enemy, every moment of suffering we've faced?"

Pluto reeled, but kept the same face as always. "… You don't know what it's like to be born with the stars. You don't know what it's like waiting for billions of years, overseeing time itself until destiny dictates that you'll be allies with one set of people for such a short, short time, and then your worth is gone. Those moments where I got to pretend to be human, to have such a normal life, are moments I will never let go of, so long as I can make sure they last."

"Then why don't you just die?!"

"I've tried!" Pluto snapped back. "But infinite reincarnation won't let me go! Someone has to watch from the first star until the heat death of the universe! …"

That sorrow and anger was something Uranus couldn't fathom… that one of their greatest allies, had in fact put them through a cycle of pain just to relive a short bout of memories that would only last a few years in comparison to the thousands it'd take to bring them around. And when Pluto turned to leave, Uranus had tried her hardest to convince them that Pluto was a traitor, and that Usagi could stop her, but the damp cigarette metaphor was true. The hope and passion was gone from all of them. The will to believe one had turned on them was just not in them anymore, and the only one who would listen to whispers that the world was dead, that in being reborn, there was a chance they would realize what had happened sooner, was the only one strong enough pull life support on the world.

"Saturn…"

"Whenever you're ready, Uranus. It will be quick… the others will have no idea it's in place until it's already gone."

Uranus paused, holding her sword at her side. They were a good distance away from the base. "… Let me take my own life first. If I can push something onto the mind of the next 'me'… I want them to remember everything."

With her holy blade turned inward at a fatal angle, she meditated on the thoughts with all the passion she had left in her heart.

_Please, remember. We all die and live again._

_It doesn't matter how many times it happens, we have to stop the cycle._

_Living a thousand times isn't the key to happiness…_

_Please remember and stop the cycle before it starts again._

_Before the world has to taste this suffering again._

She barely noticed the pooling blood under the light of Saturn's scythe.

* * *

><p>..<p>

..

And it was there.

As if the two timelines had ended and begun at the exact same time, hundreds of years of memories started to surface like the sand beneath a retreating tide. They were swelling her with fear, with the inability to understand until all pieces had surfaced. Michiru did not believe at first, suggested it as a dream, but she couldn't leave it there. She'd need to explain, and for everything that was holy, she'd have to be believed. If not by her own comrades, she was now enlightened that there were others who would not approve there was someone with such a definitive control over time and space that couldn't be allowed to… to let something so controlling to exist. But even as she thought of how serious it was, Haruka couldn't tell herself 'there is an enemy, and it is one of us'. Pluto's motivations were personal… out of love, she hoped. And she could not claim to know what billions of years of loneliness could do to one's mind.

Maybe there would be a miracle to save her. Maybe, her hand wasn't twitching to take her life just in revenge of the memories… there's still Usagi, and there's still what Usagi could do.

Haruka took out her cell phone, unsure how to word a meeting to discuss the final break in the timeline.

* * *

><p>I promise I am not a Pluto hater! FAR FROM IT. She is one of my favorite senshi. She also has the most interesting motivations, to me, within a fukufic, to be the only misguided Well-Intentioned villain. She is, after all, a big question mark compared to the other senshi, and a lot of what's going on in her head is a mystery.<p>

Which made her a blast to write! Haha.


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